Lost in Hatred
by Gundanium-Heart
Summary: Kira's only job is to protect his sister, Cagalli.  They were direct orders from his loving mother, but how long can he handle it all with his abusive adoptive father.  The basis of the idea of is from a story by Torir101, For You and I. KL AU
1. Prologue

A/N: So yeah, this is my first fic ever. I edited it the best I could, but I wish I had a beta. I hope you enjoy this. I have written a fair amount of this fic, but I can't write anymore. I need some motivation so I thought I would put up what I had and see what people have to offer in regards of review.

Disclaimer: I obviously do not own Gundam SEED, Gundam SEED Destiny, or any of the characters related to the show.

It was a bright sunny day outside on Junius 7, the capital of the PLANTs. Everything seemed to be going great for the Hibiki family living on Junius 7. Dr. Hibiki had recently received a large research grant after completing a successful experiment with the perfect womb only four years ago. Dr. Hibiki was walking down the road with his beautiful wife, and his two children, Cagalli and Kira. At the age of four, Kira was very bright for his age, a rising star academically and athletically. Kira's father was always working to push Kira further, in a loving a supportive way. Kira always found this confusing, he was always the best in all the trivial competitions of kindergarten, but his dad kept saying he could do even better and that he had to race the clock. Kira loved his father with all his heart, but this was one thing he could not understand about his father.

While Kira loved his father, he loved his mother, Via Hibiki, the most. Kira looked and acted the most like his mother. He had his mother's hair, eyes, and kind heart. He had inherited his mother's features, but the kind heart had rubbed off on him from his mother's teachings. Kira loved doing things with his mom, but one of his favorite things was helping take care of his "twin" sister. While they were the same age, Kira cared deeply for his sister and was always looking out for her. At the young age of four, Kira already held a very special place in his heart for his blond sister. Cagalli always seemed to be getting into trouble with her curious and often careless attitude, and Kira was always there to protect her and get her out of sticky situations.

On this sunny day in the downtown metropolis of Junius 7, the Hibiki family was going out for lunch and ice cream after a short morning of shopping. They had gotten in line for ice cream, and Mrs. Hibiki knelt down to Kira and Cagalli and asked, "What flavors do my prince and princess want today?"

Both of their faces lit with excitement at their choices of ice cream, and Kira was about to answer, but he was cut off when a man yelled "For our blue and pure world!"

As soon as Via heard that desperate cry, she grabbed her children in her arms right before the man committed suicide by detonating the bomb attached to his chest. The explosion shattered all the glass in the store and blew out one of the walls. It had killed almost everybody in the ice cream parlor. There were only two survivors: Kira and Cagalli. Via's body had acted as a shield, protecting her children from the shock wave of the bomb and the fallen debris from the windows, ceiling, and walls. Cagalli had still been knocked out from the force, but Kira remained conscious. After the confusion, Kira looked at his mother, and he could see the pain in her eyes as she looked at him. It looked like her last bits of life were flowing out of her eyes. Kira began crying and hysterically asked, "Mom...are you okay? Please say you're okay!"

Via looked at her son sadly because she knew this was the end of the road for her. She mustered up all of her strength and mumbled, "Kira...look after your sister...she needs...you. And know that I always love...you...my son..." Her voice trailed off as she exhaled for the last time. Kira was devastated. His mother, his protector, was dead. Kira's world was closing in on him. He had no idea what to do.

Kira looked for help until his eyes landed on his sister, and everything stopped. He knew what he had to do. Kira knew he had to help his sister. Kira picked her up and started walking towards the exit, but there was a large pile of debris from the explosion blocking the doorway. Most of the windows were broken so he jumped through the broken window, and tried to cover his sister with his body to protect her from any glass shards that might cut her. Kira landed on his back, cutting it open on the hundreds of stray shards. He had accomplished his goal though, Cagalli was unscathed; he had protected her.

Unfortunately, this was not a random terrorist attack from Blue Cosmos. The vice president, Lord Djibril, had planned this attack, and it was directed towards Dr. Hibiki himself, the creator of the ultimate coordinator. And while Kira thought he had reached safety, the real danger had now become prevalent.

The Blue Cosmos soldiers were waiting outside in case Dr. Hibiki survived. What the soldiers had not expected was the survival of young Kira and Cagalli. The captain found it a pleasant surprise, and ordered his men to capture the young children. He would offer the two as servants to his commander, Lord Djibril.

Kira slowly tried to get up, but the pain from being pierced by all the glass shards was making it hard for him to stand up. The pain and loss of blood was starting to get to Kira. For being so young he had completed quite the task, and to have lasted this long was quite amazing. Everything was starting to turn black, and the last thing he noticed were the soldiers beginning to surround him. Right before he passed out, he whispered to the surrounding men, "Save...my sister..."

The soldiers just laughed when they heard this. What a prize this was, a great offer to their lord. The captain could not have been happier. He quickly grabbed the two unconscious children and threw them in the back of their transport vehicle, but not before quickly tying their hands together so if they did wake up, they wouldn't be able to do much about it.

A/N: Please read and review. Any kind of review is accepted.


	2. A new Life

Disclaimer: I obviously do not own Gundam SEED, Gundam SEED Destiny, or any of the characters related to the show.

It had been ten years since that fateful day when their parents had been killed. Neither Kira nor Cagalli had experienced a care free or happy day since then. It had been ten years since they were free, living with their parents and not as servants to their master. And tonight, Lord Djibril was reminding them how great freedom was.

Djibril was giving Kira a very hard time tonight. Kira could not tell if it was because Djibril was simply in a bad mood, if it was because it was ten years since the fateful day when they were captured, or if it was a mixture of the both. Kira was not able to think too much about it because of the pain he was in.

It started when Djibril came up behind Kira with an injection gun. He had filled the canister with a mixture of a new pain inducing drug, a sedative, and Methamphetamine. The pain-inducing drug attacked the nervous system, causing extreme pain throughout the body. The sedative was used to make Kira's reaction slow by reducing impulse strength to the muscles. And the Methamphetamine was used to raise his heart rate so that the drugs would pump through his body faster. This made for a deadly cocktail of drugs.

After Djibril administered the drugs, he began punching Kira. Djibril constantly shouted his hatred of Kira. His shouted "You worthless child, you should have never been created! Your father was a fool, and that is why he was killed. He was killed because of his crime against humanity." It was Djibril's final statement that hurt Kira the most. "He was killed for creating You!"

Kira was stunned by that comment. Never before had Djibril said such a thing, and it had hurt Kira greatly. To think that if he, Kira, had never been born, his father and mother would still be alive, and they would be living happily as a family with Cagalli. After that comment, Kira barely felt Djibril punches. The real pain was from his guilt of being born.

Djibril loved this. He could see the pain in Kira's eyes. The pain and suffering in the eyes of the ultimate coordinator. It made it even more enjoyable for Djibril knowing that he was the cause of this pain. However this beating was reaching its end. Djibril had been abusing Kira for the last hour, and now he was getting tired. He had successfully calmed himself, and now he was tired.

All throughout this horrible ordeal, Cagalli had sat on top of the stairs watching this. The entire time she had been crying as Kira suffered through all the pain. She knew he was doing it for her. He was always doing everything for her. And while Kira was suffering, all she could do was sit and cry as she watched Djibril mercilessly beat him. Cagalli had tried to help him once, but that had only made the situation worse for Kira.

_Flashback_

_She was six years old. She couldn't handle hearing the screams of pain from Kira anymore. She had to help him. She quickly ran down the stairs, screaming for Djibril to stop._

_She thought she was helping. She thought she was going to save Kira from his harsh punishment. She thought she was doing the right thing. She thought wrong._

_As soon as she got down the stairs, she stood in front of Kira with arms out to protect him. She thought Djibril would stop. Instead, Djibril slapped her in the face and punched her in the stomach. He knocked the wind out of her, and he tossed her to the side. The last thing she saw before she lost consciousness was the empty look in Kira's eyes._

_That attack on his sister had sent Kira into a frenzied state. His eyes had gone blank, and he charged Djibril with all the energy he had left. Kira had caught Djibril by surprise and head butted him in the stomach. Kira had used up all his energy just in charging Djibril, and now lay on the floor trying to stay conscious._

_Djibril was angered by the attack, and the pain the insolent coordinator had caused him. He felt that it was time to resort to more desperate measures. He picked up Kira by the throat, the pressure from his hand choking Kira. Djibril slammed Kira against the wall and said in a tone that hinted death, "If you ever retaliate against me again, it will be your precious sister that suffers from your insolence."_

_Kira's eyes went wide at that statement, and he quickly surrendered to the merciless will of Lord Djibril. Never again would he try to fight back._

_Later that night, when Cagalli had regained consciousness, and he had gathered enough strength to sit up, he turned to Cagalli and said, "Never try to help me. No matter what happens, I want to know that you are safe. No mater how loud I scream, please, never come after me."_

_Cagalli was about to retort until she saw the look in his eyes. She could see it hurt him to be so harsh with her, but the hardened look in his eyes told her that there was no changing his mind. All she could do in response was nod her head in understanding and cry._

_End Flashback_

Djibril had stopped for the night. He grabbed Kira by the collar of his shirt and began dragging him towards the stairs. When Cagalli saw this, she quickly returned to her room with tears in her eyes.

Djibril roughly dragged the beaten Kira up the stairs and threw him into his room with his sister. He told them that the had to share a room because he was not going to waste his extra guest rooms just so they could have privacy. He said he needed the rooms for his important guests...if he ever had any.

While he had given Kira and Cagalli the smallest room in the house, which was still larger than a normal sized room since Djibril was very wealthy, it suited the twins just fine. They would rather be together than separated. It made it easier for Kira to help Cagalli with her homework at night, and for Cagalli to treat Kira's wounds.

As soon as Djibril threw Kira into the room, Cagalli rushed to check on her brother. Even through all his pain and suffering, he looked at Cagalli and gave her that smile that he never gave anyone else. He managed to rasp out a, "I'm fine," before closing his eyes and falling asleep.

Cagalli sighed in sadness. She couldn't stand what Kira was going through for her. It was so hard to see him like this. But the only thing she could do now was to put him on their bed. Yes, Djibril also didn't feel like wasting money on making sure they had two beds. They had a couch, which one of them would sometimes fall asleep on doing homework, but they usually just shared a bed. To them it was normal because they had been doing it their whole lives. They didn't know any better. It wasn't long after Cagalli put Kira under the covers that she fell asleep next to him as well.

Kira woke up the next morning groaning in pain. He had suffered a severe beating, and his body was feeling it. Kira could barely sit up from all the bruises on his abdomen where Djibril had punched him, and the pain from his body detoxing from the drugs was giving him a major headache. He wished he could take some Vicodin for the pain, but he had too many drugs in his body for him to even take Advil without putting him in more danger.

Cagalli head his groan and quickly ran over to check on Kira. She quickly asked, "Kira! Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." That was the typical Kira response, always waving off his problems as if they were nothing.

"No you're not, I can see the pain in your eyes. Where does it hurt?"

"There is no fooling you Cagalli, you always see right through me. It's just my stomach and my head, but it will be fine."

"Oh Kira..."

"We need to get to school, hurry up and finish getting ready, I will be fine on my own. Don't worry about me."

"Fine, but I put your clothes out on the couch. I thought I could at least help you a little..."

It was so hard for Cagalli to see Kira like this almost every morning. He could barely get up because of the pain, and that darn Djibril made him go to school. It was even worse because Kira and her were in different grades. They were both the same age, but Kira was extremely smart. He never got anything wrong.

Kira spent a lot of his time studying, so he wasn't simply born with the knowledge, yet he seemed to catch on quicker than most as well. In fact, Kira should be more than one year ahead of Cagalli with his marks, but Kira didn't even want to move up a grade. He wanted to stay in the same grade as Cagalli, but the teachers made him move up at least one grade so he could be a little more challenged.

Kira was upset for weeks about it, but luckily, Cagalli and Kira both had the same lunch, so they were able to see each other once a day during school.

Lunch was always a tough time for Cagalli. It always made her happy to be able to sit with her brother and catch up on their day, but he always sat with her friends. He never brought any friends of his over. Cagalli knew that he wasn't the most popular kid in school, but she thought he would at least find one friend. He is such a nice guy, how was it possible that nobody liked him?

The only friend Kira had was his sister, and it tore at her heart. Cagalli's friends were always nice to Kira, but none of them were close. Kira always seemed closed off, as if he was afraid of meeting friends.

After Cagalli had come out of her daydream, she realized that Kira was yelling at her that breakfast was ready. How Kira was able to get ready and make breakfast was beyond her. He could barely manage to get out of bed this morning, and now he was making breakfast for the both of them. She rushed downstairs to grab some breakfast with Kira.

Kira had made some blueberry pancakes, Cagalli's favorite. Kira always seemed to be able to sense what Cagalli wanted in the morning, without even asking her. It always was a little scary, but she loved that about Kira. He always knew what she needed.

This morning the two sat in silence, not wanting to wake up Djibril. They quickly ate their food, and Cagalli kept looking over at Kira with concern in her eyes. She was scared for Kira; she didn't know how much longer he could take this abuse. It had already been ten years.

As soon as Kira finished eating, he watched Cagalli and saw the sadness and concern in her eyes. He wished with all his heart she could understand he was just fine. He got up and started preparing a breakfast that could be warmed up for Djibril since he had to go to school. Kira quickly wrote a note, as Cagalli was finishing up her breakfast. As soon as he finished up the note, the two were out the door and walking.

It was a long walk to school, and the buses did not even reach their area of town. However, their only way of getting to school was walking, so the two of them woke up early enough to make their 45-minute walk.

Usually, the two discussed pointless things, making conversation and having a good time with each other before Today, however, Cagalli and Kira tried to make conversation, but Kira was quickly out of breath and was having trouble keeping up.

Cagalli saw Kira stumbling and said, "Oh my God Kira are you alright?"

Kira stated is usual response, "Yeah, don't worry, I am fine."

Kira was obviously not fine though because he could barely walk straight, and Cagalli noticed this.

"No you're not Kira, let me at least help you walk to school." Cagalli gave Kira a hardened look, telling him he couldn't refuse.

"Fine, you win this time Cagalli."

Cagalli quickly put his arm over her shoulder and let him rest on her for support. They continued like this for the long walk to school. They made it right before the bell rang, and they each grabbed their books out of their locker and ran to class. Rather, Kira more or less wobbled to class.

The first class of the day for Kira was Social Studies with one of his favorite teachers, Ms. Murrue Ramius. Ms. Ramius was a tough teacher, but she was also very understanding and always made class interesting. Well, interesting to Kira at least, maybe not so much to the rest of his class. Kira had an assigned seat in the front of the class. He enjoyed it because it made him close to the board and easy for him to take notes.

Today had seemed to be turning out to be a great day. He had been on time to class. He had managed to do his homework before Djibril came home. And best of all, he managed to not run into Sai and his gang. Sai and his gang were always beating up on Kira for what seemed to be no apparent reason. At this point, Kira thought they were doing it merely as tradition since it had started in the 4th grade.

Kira wished that one day a teacher could actually walk by when they were beating him up, a teacher like Ms. Ramius, a teacher who would actually do something. But Kira wasn't going to tell on them. He didn't know why, but he couldn't bring himself to do it.

The morning classes passed quickly, and soon it was lunch. Kira was still in a large amount of pain, but he was coping with it.

Kira was on his way to the cafeteria to eat lunch with Cagalli and her friends. He didn't really consider his sister's friends his friends, they were more of acquaintances than friends to him. He was walking down an empty hall that almost nobody ever used, when he heard it.

"Oh, hey Kira. Long time no see, huh?"

"Yeah. I guess so Sai."

Before Kira knew it, Orga and Clotho, Sai's henchmen, had grabbed his arms to prevent him from moving. Little did they realize that he was in too much pain to fight back or run away to begin with.

"Do it Shani!" Sai ordered. Sai wasn't a strong guy, so he left all the hard work to Shani, Orga, and Clotho. Sai was just the mastermind to all their plans. The strategist if you will.

Shani heard Sai's ordered and gave Kira a swift upper cut to his stomach. Right on the edge of three of his major bruises from the previous night. Kira's eyes went wide and coughed up blood. He could taste the iron in his mouth as it started trailing down the side of his mouth.

As soon as Sai and the others saw that they knew that they couldn't go any further without getting in some serious trouble. They dropped Kira on the floor and left him there as he curled up in a fetal position. Kira heard one last thing from Sai before he passed out. "How pathetic! He can't even handle one punch."

Kira woke up from his unconscious state when the bell rang for class. 'Well at least I won't be late for my class, even if I didn't get to eat lunch… I hope Cagalli wasn't too worried about me.' Kira thought as he was running as best he could to his English class with Mr. Andrew Waltfeld.

Kira made it to class just in time. The bell rang right as he was sitting down in his seat. Immediately, he got his books out and looked up to the board and started taking notes. He could see Sai staring at him across the room. It was unfortunate, but Kira did have a few classes with Sai. Sai was a sharp kid, that was why he was the brains of the gang. Sai was always trying to outdo Kira in school, but usually the closest he came to Kira was tying.

Andrew Waltfeld noticed the blood line down the side of chin and decided he would have to ask Kira about that after class. Until then, Andrew continued teaching his lesson on In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez. While it was probably one of the worst books ever written, he had to teach it because the school curriculum "required" it.

After class finished, Kira was packing up his stuff when Mr. Waltfeld said, "Hey kid, I need to talk to you."

Kira had no idea what Mr. Waltfeld wanted to talk to him about, he wasn't late to class, he turned in his homework, and he didn't sleep in class. Kira responded courteously, "Yes, sir."

"Drop the formalities kid. When its just the two of us, you can call me Andrew. Anyways, mind telling me what caused that nice trail of blood on the side of you mouth?"

'Oh no! I forgot to wash off the blood from the fight! How am I going to get out of this one.' Kira thought as he quickly looked down at his feet to avoid Mr. Waltfeld's eyes. "Um, well you see Mr. Waltfeld, I um...tripped over someone's leg in the hall and bit my lip. I guess I didn't realize how badly it was bleeding." Kira said, trying to sound like he wasn't lying.

Andrew sat down at his desk and took a sip of his coffee and thought, 'Bad brew today...' "Well kid, I can't get the real story out of ya, but just remember this: you do have friends in this school, you just need to open your eyes." It wasn't a lie. Some of the staff felt bad for Kira, and tried to reach out for him. They all saw the sadness and pain in his eyes, and they all wished that he would open up to at least one of them. It was hard to see their favorite student walking through school with nobody to talk to. He was so smart and so nice; they all wondered why he was so alone.

Finally, it was the last class of the day. It was chemistry with Mr. Mu La Flaga. Chemistry was probably Kira's favorite class because Mr. La Flaga was good teacher who enjoyed teaching lessons through wild experiments. Most of the experiments included large scale combustion reactions with unstable materials such as magnesium. And of course, everyone loves fire, so the class is a blast, literally.

Mu La Flaga was another teacher who was sort of looking out for Kira. Kira was Mu's top student, probably because Kira was the best student in the school. Mu and Kira didn't talk much, but Mu could see that Kira was having a difficult time socially. Kira didn't realize it, but he had a cheering squad in the staff. It was mostly Murrue, Andrew, Mu, Erica Simmons, and oddly enough, Principal Durandal. While the principal could not play favorites, Gilbert Durandal always seemed to have a keen interest in Kira.

Mu had heard from Andrew about the dried blood on Kira's face. He was worried about Kira, but all he could do was teach class and watch Kira. He volunteered as a lunch monitor so he could try and understand more about Kira's situation. Mu started today, and he noticed that Kira didn't show up for lunch. He realized that it must have been during that time when Kira had acquired his injury. Mu hoped the other days would be a more productive and yield some more results.

Kira loved chemistry, but today he was in too much pain to get much enjoyment out of the class. Everything was starting to go blurry as class went on, and he knew he had to use all his strength so he didn't pass out in front of Mr. La Flaga. He couldn't let the teachers catch on that he is abused. It would just make protecting Cagalli more difficult. Kira was willing to go through this pain if it was better for Cagalli in the end.

The bell rang to signal the end of class, and Kira couldn't be happier. He wasn't sure how much he could endure. He really needed to get home and rest. He quickly gathered his books and walked out of the room as fast as he could without having people notice how much pain he was in.

Though Kira tried his best, Mu noticed how Kira was having trouble walking straight, and how he wasn't even paying attention in class. It was as if Kira was trying his best just to stay awake. 'Hopefully my lesson wasn't that boring.' Mu thought. 'But what kind of trouble could you have gotten yourself into to be so injured.' Mu had an inkling feeling as to who at the school might be posing a problem to Kira, but he had to confirm his suspicions.

Cagalli was waiting for Kira outside of the school entrance. She was starting to get worried. She hadn't seen him at lunch. 'Maybe he is talking with one his teachers, or-' Her thought was cut off as Kira walked out of the door, to Cagalli's relief.

Kira saw Cagalli and began walking towards. He yelled out "Hey Cagalli!"

"Kira!" Cagalli rand up and gave her brother a hug. They began walking home and she said, "I was beginning to get worried about you. What took you so long?"

"Heh. I was just slow getting out of class today, I guess."

"You're still in pain from last night aren't you? I can see it in your eyes. Here, give me your arm, I will help you walk home again."

"Thanks Cagalli, I owe you one. Maybe I will stop trying so hard to make you wear the standard girl issued skirt as part of your uniform, eh?"

'Oh Kira, I am the one who owes you. You go through all this pain for me.' While those were Cagalli's true thoughts, Kira's comment had fired up her temper. "Yeah! Glad you finally realized that I won't wear a skirt no matter what you say!"

Kira laughed at how easy it was to get his sister fired up. "Oh Cagalli, but you would look oh so cute in the plaid brown skirt!" he teased.

"I don't do cute." And that was the end of the skirt debate.

Their conversation continued all the way home, but Cagalli could tell that by the end of the walk, it was becoming increasingly difficult for Kira to stay focused on the conversation they were having.

As soon as they got home, Cagalli took Kira upstairs and made him lay down in bed. At first Kira resisted, but in the end he gave in. He knew she was going to win, and he knew he needed the rest

Kira laid down in bed and closed his eyes, and right before he fell asleep he said, "Cagalli, don't forget your homework. You know how important it is to get good grades..." Kira then drifted into a deep sleep.

Cagalli seriously hoped that Djibril did not come home angry or stressed tonight. Actually, Cagalli hoped that Djibril did not come home at all tonight. Sometimes he would disappear on three or four day business trips. It was like a vacation for her brother and her.

Cagalli immediately started her homework, like her brother asked. She knew grades were important, and she maintained straight A's in school all her life. That wasn't about to stop now.

A couple of hours later, while Cagalli was finishing up the last of her homework, Kira woke up. His body was extremely sore, especially where Shani punched him, and he noticed it hurt a little to take a breath. He knew he just had to take it easy for a couple of days. Maybe he could get out of gym by convincing Ms. Badgiruel he had the flu or something.

Kira saw Cagalli doing her homework, and he was happy that she listened to him. He reached over the side of the bed and began his homework. While getting good grades for him wasn't as important as Cagalli getting good grades, he couldn't let himself fail out of high school. At least not when it was so easy and he enjoyed learning so much.

Within an hour Kira had finished all his homework, and finished just a little after Cagalli. Cagalli was always amazed at how fast Kira could finish his homework. It was like he knew everything and didn't even have to try.

It was getting late in the evening, and Kira looked over to Cagalli and said, "How about I make us dinner?"

"But Kira! Why don't you just rest?"

"Cagalli, it's fine. Besides, I don't want to sleep anymore. I need to do a little something."

"Fine, just don't push yourself."

Kira nodded and headed downstairs to the kitchen. He knew it would be better if he made dinner. This way Cagalli would get a good meal, and there would something for Djibril if he came home tonight. As soon as Kira finished dinner, which was a "simple" dinner of Cantonese beef and broccoli over pan-fried noodles. Kira like to cook Chinese food because it was usually quick and tasted delicious.

Kira called Cagalli down to the Kitchen and they ate dinner talking about how school was for the day.

"Kira, dinner is delicious like always. But I was wondering what happened to you at lunch today. You never showed up, what was he deal?" Cagalli asked. She knew she might not get the full truth, but Kira wouldn't lie to her either.

"Well...um, I got held up in the halls sorta. And after that, well, it was too late to go to lunch."

"And what was this hold up? Was it Sai and his gang again?" Cagalli knew that Sai picked on Kira. However, all she knew was that they picked on Kira; she didn't know the severity of the situation.

Kira looked down at his food and mumbled, "Yeah, they caught me on my way to lunch. And they had a lot say...so I just didn't make it to lunch. Sorry..."

"Don't worry Kira, as long as your okay then it is fine. Geez, you need to relax you know! Your acting like a forty year old man."

Kira laughed at that and got up to clean up their finished dinner plates. While Kira was finishing up cleaning the plates, he heard the garage door open. Djibril was home. Kira quickly looked over at his sister, and with a fierce look in his eyes he told Cagalli to go to their room.

"Bur Kira, what about you. You're still injured from last night!"

"I'll be fine. Don't worry about me. Just run upstairs and don't come down no matter what you hear."

Cagalli ran upstairs and closed the doors. She threw herself on her pillow and began sobbing. "Oh Kira, why can't someone protect. You're always protecting me, but what about what you want!" Cagalli began ranting in sadness at what her brother always went through for her.

Kira quickly put away the plates and began warming up what was left of the meal for Djibril. As soon as Djibril walked in, Kira bowed and said, "Your dinner is ready."

"Excellent timing then. Now, serve me!" Djibril demanded as he sat down in his seat.

Kira quickly put the food on a plate and placed it in front of Djibril. As soon as Kira put the meal down, Djibril backhanded him hard across the face.

Kira fell to the ground, caught off guard by the sudden slap. He landed on his side and gasped in pain form the pressure on his sore and bruised ribs.

"Now get out of my sight! You're lucky today went so well. If it hadn't, I might have had to relieve some of my stress. Now move!"

This was a Godsend to Kira. He quickly got up and ran for his bedroom. He could hear Djibril's sinister laugh all the way up the stairs, but that didn't matter. He had a whole day where Djibril didn't beat him.

Kira rushed through the door with a huge smile on his face. Cagalli quickly looked up from her pillow. You couldn't tell she had been crying because the pillow had dried up her tears as they fell. Cagalli saw the smile on his face and quickly asked, "What happened to you? Did the girl of your dreams kiss you?"

"Hah hah. No, but Djibril was in a good mood so he won't be bothering us tonight!"

"Oh my God! That's great news Kira. Almost as good as getting kissed by the girl of your dreams." Cagalli teased.

Kira just laughed and said, "Well, its getting late, and while we have this chance, we better get some sleep."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. And you need your rest after last night."

They both laid down on their respective sides of their bed and Cagalli quickly fell asleep. Kira, however, began thinking about Cagalli's comment.

'The girl of my dreams... who would that be?' After that thought, his mind began reeling with questions like, 'Would any girl even like me?'

'Of course they would. You need to have faith in yourself'

He realized it was his conscious, or maybe it was his self esteem and pride that he had locked away in the back of his mind. He realized at a young age that self-esteem and pride only made things worse for Cagalli and him. He decided to just accept the punishment without complaint. This way, there was less conflict and Cagalli never got hurt.

'No, no girl could ever love me. I'm too broken to be loved.'

'That is where you are wrong.'

'No! What could any girl see in me? Only a pathetic weakling who has no friends and gets beaten by his "father" and classmates'

'What about Cagalli, she loves you.'

Kira couldn't think of a good answer for that one. His mind blanked. 'She probably only loves me because we are family.'

There was no response. But this question bugged him. Kira realized that maybe he was finally breaking. He knew he couldn't though. He had to be strong for Cagalli. If only he had someone there for him. Someone to offer him sanctuary. Someone to offer him even a little protection. If only...but that would never happen he decided.

Kira looked over to Cagalli and brushed away some strands of hair from her eyes. She looked so peaceful when she was sleeping. He wished she didn't have to go through this. He wished he could keep protecting her until she was free. He just hoped he wouldn't break before then. He kissed Cagalli's forehead. He loved her, and he would do anything for her. He rolled back over and fell asleep, his last thought being his hope to be able to protect her until the end.

That night he had the oddest dream.

_Dream_

_Kira was walking through a heavy fog; he couldn't see more than two feet ahead of him. He was so lost. He couldn't find his way. He needed help. He kept calling out, "Help me! Help me!" But no matter how hard he tried, he found himself getting nowhere in the empty abyss. Everywhere he looked, there was white fog. He couldn't tell left from right, north from south, or up from down. The foggy haze was throwing him into a heavy confusion._

_After walking for what seemed like hours, he gave up. He sat down and pulled his knees to his to his chest. He started sobbing. He couldn't do it._

"_Why won't anyone help me? Why won't anyone love me? Am I such a bad person?" He cried out._

"_I will help you." A sweet voice said._

"_Who are you?"_

"_Someone who can sense your pain, and see into your kind heart. I am someone who loves you." _

_The voice soothed Kira. Then he felt arms wrap around him. He felt them protect him. They took away his pain. He wanted to look up and see whom it was, but he was afraid if he moved, then all this would disappear. That this would just be a joke._

"_Why are you doing this? I am broken." Kira mumbled._

"_You are not broken, you are kind and caring. You make so many sacrifices for others, yet you don't do anything for yourself."_

"_I don't do anything for myself because there is nothing for me. No one can love me. No one can understand me. I can't even understand me."_

"_Oh Kira. You are different than everybody else that is true. But there is someone who can understand you. There is someone who can love you. You deserve more than you give you give yourself credit for."_

"_Who could understand someone like me?"_

"_Me." And with that the person disappeared._

_Kira was confused. He knew it was girl, he could tell by her voice and by her touch. And, no matter how much he tried to deny, Kira knew everything she said was the truth. He knew that she was the one he was looking for. She was his sanctuary; she was the one who could help him._

_End Dream_

A/N: Please read and review. Any kind of review is accepted. _  
_


	3. A New Friend

Disclaimer: I obviously do not own Gundam SEED, Gundam SEED Destiny, or any of the characters related to the show.

Kira woke up the next morning bright and early, and well before Cagalli. He had no idea what to make of his dream, as the details began slipping from his mind. The more he thought about what happened in his dreams, the more he couldn't remember. He noticed that most of his bruises had healed, and he was always amazed at how fast his body recovered. His rib was still hurting, and he figured it was broken, but it was much better than yesterday, especially considering he fell on it after Djibril slapped him. He always had a doubt in the back of his mind that most people didn't heal as fast as he did, but what did he know. He simply took it for normal.

He got up, brushed his teeth, put his uniform on, laid out Cagalli's on the couch, and walked downstairs to make breakfast. He would wake Cagalli up when breakfast was ready so that she would get the most sleep. He quickly got to work on his omelets for the morning. Omelets were one of Kira's favorite breakfast recipes because they were easy to make and could be very creative.

As soon as he finished, he laid the plates out on the kitchen counter and ran upstairs to wake Cagalli. When he opened the door, he ran into one of the awkward situations where his sister was putting her pants on. Both their faces turned bright red, and he quickly mumbled a "Sorry..." and closed the door.

While most girls would scream at their brothers for doing something so stupid, Kira and Cagalli learned quickly that it was better to suffer with the embarrassment then wake up Djibril. She also knew that Kira was under so much stress that she let go of her temperamental attitude for this situation.

Cagalli ran downstairs and ate her breakfast with her brother. As usual, he finished before her and put together Djibril's plate. They then walked off to school, and Cagalli noticed that Kira seemed to be fully healed. She was amazed at how fast he healed, as well as extremely grateful. She figured Kira would have been close to death many weeks had it not been for his body's unusual endurance.

The two of them made it to school a little earlier than yesterday thanks to the fact that Djibril hadn't beaten Kira again the previous night. This allowed Kira that ability to walk his sister to class and make sure she had all her stuff. He dropped her off at class and said, "Good luck today."

She turned around, gave him a quick hug, and whispered, "Be careful, I love you Kira."

Kira returned the quick embrace and then headed to his locker. Much to his surprise he found he found Sai standing there. 'Great! What a way to start the day. Well at least his gang isn't with him.' Kira walked up to his locker and said, "Excuse me Sai, I need to get my books."

Sai turned and looked over at Kira. 'I don't need my gang here to deal with Djibril. I can handle him on my own right now. All I want to do is have some fun before class and get my anger out.' Sai looked around to make sure there weren't any teachers and said, "Look Djibril, I just wanted to say I am sorry for always beating on you. After yesterday, I realized I was wrong, and I am going to stop."

Kira bristled at the name Djibril, but he couldn't believe what he was hearing. He had to verify this. "Are you serious?" Kira asked in a hopeless tone.

Kira verified his answer, all right. Sai swung his fist as hard as he could into Kira's stomach. Sai wasn't very strong and underestimated Kira's strength. The single punch hurt Sai's hand almost as much as it hurt Kira, but a blow to the stomach always hurts.

Kira's eyes widened when he saw Sai start to swing his fist. Kira braced for the impact, tightening his abs, and got the wind slightly knocked out of him, but it wasn't anything like Shani's punches. The thing that hurt the most was the small sense of false hope that Sai had given him. How nice it would have been able to only have to fear one person, and to be able to feel safe at school.

Sai's eyes widened in pain and surprise. He quickly ran off after that in case Kira had decided to fight back. He was amazed at how little of a reaction he got out of Kira. 'Just yesterday Kira passed out after one punch to the exact same spot. Was Shani really that much stronger than him? No, it had to be something else. But what else would explain it?"

Kira was sitting in class, waiting for Ms. Ramius to come. It was weird, she was usually never late, but there must be some sort of explanation. Kira just hoped it wasn't something like Ms. Ramius had gotten sick, and now they had a sub until she was better.

The actual reason was much different. Ms. Ramius walked in late because she had to pick up one of the new transfer students from the PLANTs. When Ms. Ramius walked in with the new transfer student, everybody's head turned, and the boy's mouths dropped. The most beautiful girl ever to grace the earth had just entered the room, and every guy, even if they were taken, was thinking of way to make her theirs.

Kira looked away soon after he saw the new girl. While his heart rate may have risen a little, and he may think she is the most beautiful girl in the world, why would she ever pay attention to him? He could even tell she was nice; there was a sense of sincerity that gleamed in her eyes. How he longed for a girl like her, but knew it was unattainable wish for someone like him, someone broken and worthless.

Ms. Ramius saw this as the perfect opportunity to set Kira up, even if it was something as simple as a small friendship. Her excuse was simple. Kira and the new girl would sit next to each other because Kira could show her the ropes as the top student in the class.

The one thing she found weird was that this new girl had the same schedule as Kira, and all the class recommendations were by Principal Durandal. It was odd that he would have such a keen interest in Kira, and also seem to pair up this girl with Kira. But who knows, maybe it really was just random chance. She would have to investigate later.

"Class, I would like to introduce you to our new student. She is a student from the PLANTs that chose to participate in the transfer program. I will leave her to handle the formalities herself."

A girl with pink hair, a glistening gold double crescent hair clip, and beautiful pale blue eyes, stepped forward and introduced herself. "Why hello everybody, my name is Lacus Clyne. I'm very pleased to meet all of you."

Every boy was staring in awe at the pink haired girl. She was one of the most beautiful girls in the classroom. Many of the other girls were getting jealous at all the attention this girl was receiving, especially since many of their boyfriends were drooling over her.

Kira was the most intrigued however. Aside from her beauty, he could have sworn he had heard her voice before. He wasn't sure where he had heard it, but the sweet tone she had kept ringing in his head. Kira couldn't help but look at her and think that she was the most gorgeous girl he had ever set eyes on. He had always overheard people talking about how "hot" certain girls were in the school, but every time he looked at said girls, he never thought they were all that pretty. That was probably because he knew them to be vicious, backstabbing, social climbing girls that only cared about partying and social reputation. But when Kira looked at Lacus, he thought she was the most beautiful thing to walk the earth. However, as quick as that thought came, Kira realized it didn't matter. She would never fall for a broken guy like him. He had no friends, no social status, and no reputation. He had nothing good to offer, he was broken after all. He just pushed all his thoughts about this Lacus Clyne to the back of his mind, hoping to never ponder on them again.

"Thank you Lacus. Now if you would please take the seat next to Kira Djibril, the brown haired boy right in front of you."

Kira's eyes went wide. What was Ms. Ramius thinking? It was bad for Lacus to even be near him. He was bad news for anyone. He couldn't let her get too close to him, for her own good. No matter how much he liked her, it would be for her own good if she didn't associate herself with him.

Lacus kindly nodded and walked over to Kira. She looked over to Kira as she was walking. She noticed that Kira was avoiding her eyes, and she wanted to know why. Why was he so afraid? She would have to figure it out later.

"Lacus, if you have any questions, just ask Kira over there. He will be happy to help, won't you Kira?"

Kira visibly stiffened at the comment. "Um...yeah, of course Ms. Ramius."

Lacus wasn't sure of what to make of Kira. He was very cute, and he seemed very nice. She felt like she knew him from somewhere. It was an odd feeling, but she just brushed it off. The problem was that Kira seemed very closed off, as if he was hiding something. She hoped she could come to understand this mystery named Kira Djibril.

Class promptly started after Ms. Ramius introduced their new student. "Alright class, now open your books to page 234. Today we are going to discuss Orb's governmental history."

Lacus hadn't received her book for this class yet, so she decided she would share with Kira. "Um...Kira?"

Kira's eyes widened when he heard the melodious voice. Without thinking, he turned to look at Lacus, "Yes, what do you need Miss Clyne?"

"Well, first off, you don't have to be so formal silly. Lacus is just fine. Secondly, it seems that my books aren't in yet, so I was wondering...do you think we could share for today?"

"Oh well, um sure. I guess." Kira didn't know what to do; he knew his face was turning bright red from embarrassment. He had never really talked to any other girl besides Cagalli, and since she wasn't really much of a conventional girl, he had no idea how to act.

Lacus saw the blush on Kira's face and smiled. 'He is so innocent. It's kinda cute...but why am I thinking this! I haven't even had a normal conversation with him, but I still feel like I know him. I feel like I can trust him with my life. And I could get lost in those amethyst eyes of his...' Lacus quickly broke out of her reverie and started moving her desk next to Kira's so that they could share his book.

It was assigned reading and then some critical thinking questions at the end of the chapter. Kira turned to Lacus and said, "Just turn the pages when your ready," and he moved the book so it was mostly on her desk. Kira was a fast reader, and he had already read this chapter.

He usually read his textbooks within the first week of school. It helped pass time when he wasn't cleaning, cooking, or being beaten. It also made class easier in case he didn't have time to do the reading for a test later in the year due to extenuating circumstances. Kira was a strong believer in not procrastinating. Trying to be proactive was his way of life.

Lacus looked at him funny, but agreed with the nod of her head. She read the first two pages at a relaxed pace, not wanting to read too fast for Kira, only to look up and see him staring off in space. She turned the page, and Kira turned his head to start reading again. Lacus decided to test his reading speed. She read as fast as she could, skimming some chapters, and looked up as soon as she was finished only to find Kira staring off into space again. 'He must be a coordinator, but not just any kind of coordinator. What are your secrets Kira?' Lacus thought. 'Maybe he is just pretending to read...I will find out when we do the questions, I guess.'

They finished reading, and began working on the questions. They both finished quickly, and both of them had perfect answers to all the questions. Kira was pretty impressed with Lacus. 'She's not just another pretty girl. She actually tries in school. But what does it matter to me, the only reason she is talking to me right now is because I'm the only person she knows. Besides, it's safer if she isn't friends with me.'

Lacus was amazed at Kira's answers. They were perfect in every way. All of his answers were written like professional essays. Not a single point missed. It amazed her. Who was this Kira Djibril? Lacus could not figure this out.

The bell rang and the first class of the day was over. Everybody packed their things and got up to go to their next class. Lacus looked at her schedule and realized she didn't know where her next class was. She quickly looked for Kira and saw him walking out of the door. She ran to try and catch up to him, and yelled "Kira, wait up!"

Kira quickly turned around and realized that Lacus probably didn't know where her next class was. Why else would she want to talk to him? He looked at Lacus with a smile of understanding and said, "Need help finding your next class?"

"How did you know?"

"Well, why else would you be running after me? Here, let me see your schedule."

Lacus handed her schedule to Kira. She didn't like Kira's attitude. Why else would she want to talk to him? Because he is her friend! Was he blind?

Kira's eyes widened in surprise. 'She has the exact same schedule as me! This could be bad.' He looked up at Lacus with a smile on his face, but a deep sadness in his eyes. "Your in all the same classes as me, so you can just follow me."

Lacus just looked at him, "You mean you're even in Sewing 101? Why would a guy like you be in that class?"

"Heh heh, well...um...its because I have to do a lot of work around the house, and well, nobody wants to pay to get their clothes fixed when they tear. I just figured I could save some money that way." Kira wasn't exactly lying, it was because he needed to fix his clothes, but it wasn't for lack of money in the family. Kira and Cagalli just didn't get new clothes very often, so what they had for casual wear was very worn. Cagalli's less so then Kira's.

"Oh my, well that's very kind of you." Lacus saw the sadness in his eyes as he said this and knew there had to be something more, but she wasn't going to be able to figure that out today. The pain in his eyes seemed to say more than just a "money problem." 'Why am I so interested in Kira? I barely know him? It is like I hear a silent call for help from him, and I am drawn in towards him. I just hope I can actually help him when the time comes.'

Kira signaled for her to follow him and began walking in silence. Kira was looking down at the floor and didn't really feel like talking. One reason was because he didn't know what to say, another reason being that he didn't want Lacus to get pulled into all of his problems.

Lacus noticed Kira's wish for silence and decided to honor it. She walked a little behind him and just followed him as they went to their next class, Sewing 101. Lacus knew it was going to be tough to get Kira to open up, but she knew there was more to Kira then he was letting people see. She wanted to see the true Kira, not the hidden and shy Kira that was walking in front of her.

Kira and Lacus walked into the classroom for Sewing 101. It was a large room that contained tables with chairs instead of desks. There were about 7 tables, three rows of two tables and the last one was a lone table in the back right corner of the room. Most of the kids filled the first 2 rows of tables, and usually chatted amongst themselves instead of working on their projects.

Kira walked up to the teacher Ms. Erica Simmons. He said, "Hello Ms. Simmons, there is a new student here. I thought you would want to assign the seat and help her catch up."

"Ah yes, thank you Kira. I was expecting her. Please go take your seat."

Kira nodded and headed over to the lone table in the back of the room. This was the only class where Kira did not sit in the front. That was because the class consisted of all girls that didn't want to be associated with him, and because he wanted his own quiet corner to do his work for class.

"Now class, get to work on your projects. While they are due next week, it is better to get them done earlier instead of later." Ms. Simmons announced, and the class groaned in response. Most of the girls just began talking with each other. This was just another blow off class for them.

Lacus walked over to Ms. Simmons who had a small smile on her face. "Hello. My name is Lacus Clyne."

"How nice to meet you Lacus. I am Ms. Simmons. Now to brief you on this class, there isn't much to know other than you will get an assignment, and you can use the class time to hopefully finish it before the due date. If you don't finish it in class, you will have to take it home. I give plenty of class time, you just need to make sure you organize your time."

"Of course. Thank you Ms. Simmons." Lacus said, before realizing she didn't have a seat. "Um...pardon me, but where should I sit?" Lacus asked as she glanced at the lonesome Kira. 'Why doesn't he sit with any of the other girls? Why does he seem so alone? Maybe I can sit by him and keep him company. ...Why am I so intrigued with you, Kira?'

Erica noticed the girl glance towards Kira. It looked like Kira might finally have a friend in this class. Erica always felt bad for Kira because none of the girls ever talked to him, and he was always working so hard in her class. From what she heard from her friends, he didn't have friends in any of his other classes either, and he worked his heart out. How she wished Kira would open up to somebody. He was such a kind young boy that just needed a good friend. Perhaps this Lacus could be that friend.

"There are a lot of open seats near Kira, but you can sit wherever you want. You can ask the girls to make space for you as well."

"I think I will sit by Kira. Thank you Ms. Simmons."

Erica smiled at that comment and said, "Well, if I'm busy and you need any help, you can ask Kira. He knows this stuff pretty well."

"Thank you again Ms. Simmons." With that, Lacus grabbed her supplies and headed over to the lone table with Kira.

"Um...Kira? Is this seat taken?"

Kira quickly looked up in surprise. 'Why is she following me around? Doesn't she realize nobody likes me; that I am a menace to her society? Why can't she realize that I am no good for her!' he screamed in his head. "La...Lacus! Um, no. You can sit there, but why don't you want to sit with the other girls and have fun?"

'Why is he always putting himself down like this?' Lacus thought. "I wanted to sit by my friend, silly. I don't know any of those girls, and they seem to care more about gossip then grades. Unlike them, I care about my grades, and I don't want to lead some superficial life, nor do I want to be around with people who only care about themselves."

Kira felt his heart flutter for a second. 'She sees me as a friend. She isn't like all those other people. She sees me for me! But I can't do this. Either way you cut it, I am bad for her. It's best if this friendship is severed now, ended before it even starts.' He looked down at the table and said, "Look, I'm flattered you would want to be my friend, it makes you the first. However, you can't be."

Lacus looked at Kira stunned, 'His first friend? How is that possible? Oh it is not ending like this!' "What do you mean I can't be? What gives you the right to chose who I want to be friends with?"

"Look, I am bad news here. If you become friends with me, then you could get dragged into that too."

"That's not a good enough reason for me. You said you were flattered, which means you like me. Kira, you cannot push me away for some "noble" reason."

"Seriously! Nobody likes me, and if they find out you are my friend, then they might take their hatred for me out on you. You don't deserve that."

"I will take things as they come. I can handle myself in a tough situation. Now, you can either accept my friendship gracefully, or we can do this the hard way."

"...Why are you doing this to yourself?"

"Because I want to, Kira. Because this is how important your friendship is to me. You have gone out of your way for me by showing me to my classes, lending your book to me, answering all my questions, and you are just a nice guy. This is my way of repaying you. Do you want to keep fighting about this, or are you just going to accept that I will not take no for an answer. I am willing to take the risks. Now are we finished?"

Kira saw the determined look in Lacus' eyes and realized there was no changing her mind. "Yeah...you win."

"Well, then its settled, Kira Djibril, new friend of mine!" She exclaimed in a cheery, sing-song voice.

How could being friends with him make her so happy? He was broken and defeated. Yet, deep in his heart, he wished that she would be the one to help, the one to understand him, the one to mean everything to him. First, though, she needed to understand something. "Do me a favor Lacus."

"Yes, what is it?"

"Don't associate me with the Djibril family name."

"Why ever not? It's your family, shouldn't you be proud of it?" As soon as she said that she saw the dark look that overtook Kira's face. His hands balled up into fists, and he began shaking. Now she knew of one source of his problems.

"I am not, and I never will be a Djibril." Kira ground out in anger.

"Alright, then Kira it is. Kira, no more, no less. How is that?" Kira seemed to calm down considerably after that.

"That is fine."

"Okay. Well, Kira, now that we have that settled, would you mind helping me understand what the project is?"

Kira quickly began explaining the project, and the two began working.

Erica had watched the exchange from afar, noticing how Lacus would not back down to Kira. Kira now had a true friend. Erica hoped that this would work out and help Kira show everyone the person he really is.

The bell rang, signaling the end of fourth period. Kira and Lacus headed to the lunchroom. Kira was starting to get worried. He hadn't seen Sai and his gang today. He just hoped that Sai had backed off for the day and wasn't going to show up while Lacus and him were going to lunch. He turned to Lacus and decided to warn her. "Lacus. If you see a guy with amber glasses walking down the hall with three other guys, just keep walking and act like you don't know me."

"Why? Why would I just leave you Kira."

"For your own good! And whatever you do, don't look back."

"Kira, you're scaring me. Why can't we just face it together? We are friends after all."

"Lacus, I just don't want you to get involved. I don't know what I would do if anything happened to you." 'What did I just say? What was I thinking? Is that really the reason?' All these questions raced through his mind, and he realized that there was something special about Lacus, something that he couldn't quite figure out. He was having trouble fully understanding his emotions, but he knew that Lacus was someone very important too him, even though he had only known her for a short time.

Lacus blushed at his comment. It was the first indication that he cared for her. It made her heart race, and gave her some hope that maybe she was getting through to Kira. All she could do was nod in agreement.

The two of them walked in silence until they entered the cafeteria.

Mu was on lunch duty, and he was extremely surprised to see Kira walk in with a girl, and not just any girl, probably the most beautiful girl in the school. He watched with interest as to what was unfolding in Kira's social life.

"Where should we sit Kira?"

"I know a table with a couple of people."

"Oh my, Kira I knew it. It isn't possible for someone as considerate as you to not have any friends."

Kira blushed at the compliment. "It's different than what you think, just follow me, okay?"

"Alright, fine Kira." She was not sure how to judge that comment, but how could he not have friends yet know a group of people that he could sit with.

Kira started leading Lacus over to Cagalli's table. As soon as he got there, Cagalli ran up to Kira and threw her arms around him for a quick hug. Cagalli may have a rough temper, but she had a soft spot for Kira. After all he had done for her, giving her brother a hug, even if it was in public, was nothing.

Lacus and Mu were stunned. Who was this blond haired girl they wondered.

Mu was dying from curiosity. He moved along the wall to get closer to their table so he could hear their conversation. They all thought Kira didn't have any friends, but if he didn't, then who was this blond haired girl that just full out hugged him! Did Kira have a girlfriend?

Lacus was dying from curiosity as well. She was beginning to have a sinking feeling in her heart. She was afraid this was Kira's girlfriend. 'But I have only known him for a day! How could I be jealous already? What is wrong with me.'

Kira returned Cagalli's hug. They quickly broke their embrace, and Cagalli looked up to see Lacus. Her eyes widened in surprise. 'Did Kira finally make a friend of his own! This is so great, and she is so pretty. Oh I hope she can help Kira.'

Kira turned to Lacus. "Lacus, I would like you to meet my sister, Cagalli."

Once again, Mu and Lacus's eyes widened in shock from this news.

Mu began thinking, 'How did we not know that Kira had a sister. You would think he would talk about her or something, I guess.'

'Oh my, its his sister. So that is why I am his "only" friend...I guess your own sister isn't in the same category as a friend,' thought Lacus. She felt almost relieved that Cagalli was only Kira's sister. 'But why...why do I feel this way?'

Lacus quickly stuck her hand out. "Oh it is so nice it is to meet you Miss Cagalli. I am Lacus Clyne."

"Just call me Cagalli, Miss Lacus." Cagalli said, emphasizing the miss.

"Well then, just call me Lacus, Cagalli."

Kira quickly interrupted the two of them. "I'm going to go get us lunch. Anybody want anything specific?"

"No" they both said in unison.

Kira just nodded and headed off to go pick up their lunches.

"So, let me introduce you to my friends Lacus."

Cagalli introduced Lacus to all of her friends. There was Shinn Asuka, Meyrin Hawk, Stellar Loussier, and Nicol Amalfi. Cagalli didn't have a large group of friends, but she had very loyal ones. She had heard a saying that if you have as many loyal friends as you do fingers on one hand, then you have lived a successful life from that alone. She liked to think that she had friends that were true and loyal, friends that wouldn't turn their back on her no matter what.

Shinn was an angst ridden kid that would get upset over just about anything. He was quick to react and slow to think, which landed him in a lot of trouble.

Meyrin was soft-spoken girl, and she was very relaxed and easy going.

Stellar was a fiery blond haired girl that enjoyed dancing and having fun. School wasn't all that important to her, but she was smart, so good grades still came relatively easily to her.

Nicol was a quiet boy, he enjoyed music a lot, and he was usually the mediator of conflicts in the group.

After the introduction, Cagalli eyed Lacus. She wasn't sure what to make of her. She decided it was better to be safe than sorry and find out if Lacus was a loyal friend, or if she was just using Kira. It wouldn't do Kira any good if she was just using him.

"So, Kira should be back soon. How did you meet him, anyway?"

"Oh, I am a transfer student from the PLANTs. He was the first person I met, and we have all the same classes. It was odd though, it was as if he didn't want me to be friends with him. It was quite the task convincing him that I didn't want to associate myself with those other girls that care only about how expensive their cosmetics are..."

When Cagalli heard this, it made her heart burst. Lacus had fought Kira...and won. She knew Kira was hard to approach, and she was thankful this girl wasn't going to give up that easily. Cagalli could tell that Lacus would become a true friend for Kira...maybe even more.

"I see. Well I am glad Kira has finally made a friend." Cagalli said, before noticing Kira walking back. "Oh, it looks like Kira's back with the food! I'm starving."

Lacus just giggled at Cagalli's antics, but, at the same time, she was extremely grateful that Cagalli seemed to accept her.

Kira walked up with the food right when Lacus giggled. He thought the sound to be so melodious and calming. He knew Lacus was different than all the other girls, and he knew that she was important to him already, but Kira was afraid. He was afraid to get too involved with Lacus. He was afraid that she would leave him if she knew too much, and afraid that she would get hurt. Two things he didn't want.

"Well, I got our food" Kira said, stating the obvious.

"Thanks Kira!" Cagalli and Lacus said at the same time.

"Yeah, no problem. Let's eat, shall we?" Kira asked.

They all nodded and sat down at their table. They began chatting away over everything and anything. Cagalli and her friends did most of the talking, like usual. Kira just kept quiet and ate his food, while his mind drifted off into space. Lacus watched Kira as he ate silently. Kira was her friend at the table and didn't feel all that comfortable talking with everyone if Kira wasn't talking.

Soon the bell rang and the group got up to head to their respective classes.

Lacus got up and turned over towards Kira. "Hey Kira, would you be so kind as to walk me to class?" Lacus knew he didn't have a choice since she had no idea where she was going, but she thought it would be fun to see his reaction.

"Um...yeah...sure. Just uh...follow me." Kira stuttered while turning a cute shade of pink.

"Thank you." Lacus said, adding a special smile for him.

They were walking down the corridors, and Lacus decided it was too quiet and wanted to start some conversation.

"Kira, why do look so sad? It's as if a haunting memory is following you wherever you go."

"It has just been a long day. I'm tired and stressed." But she hit it right on. The memory of my mother dying has haunted him since that fateful day. He couldn't help but think that if he had only been stronger he could have stopped her from dying. Maybe it's like Djibril said, if only he hadn't been born.' Tears began welling up in Kira's eyes. It seemed the pressure was finally getting to him.

Lacus noticed the tears, and without thinking, she quickly ran up to Kira and hugged him.

Kira stiffened from human contact. The only human contact he ever received was the small, but loving, hugs from Cagalli, or the kicks and punches from Djibril. He couldn't believe this, though. Lacus was hugging him. Not only that, but he felt safe in her arms. He felt like he all of his pain was being taken away by her touched. He felt like he had been in this situation before. He had told himself he would be strong for Cagalli. He told himself that he would never cry again. Yet, in Lacus's arms, he couldn't stop the tears.

Lacus couldn't believe what she had just done. She wasn't even thinking, she did what felt right and let her heart guide her. She could feel Kira crying softly and tightened her grip on him. "Kira, its okay. Come on, let's go to class."

Kira slowly nodded, and quickly wiped his eyes with his left sleeve as Lacus moved her grip to hold on to his right arm. "Thank you..." He whispered.

"Anytime Kira. I'm...I'm here for you." She said as she blushed a little. She really did care for Kira. He was so sweet and innocent; she couldn't help but have a soft spot for him.

Kira and Lacus walked into English, Lacus still with her arms wrapped around Kira's. Most of the kids were talking amongst themselves, but there were two people who did notice. Andrew Waltfeld and Sai Argyle.

Kira noticed Sai the look on his face and realized what he was so surprised about. Kira quickly removed his arm from Lacus's grip. The sudden movement surprised Lacus, but she figured that Kira was embarrassed about being seen with a girl or something, so she brushed it off. Kira quickly stalked off to inform Mr. Waltfeld of the new student, yelling at himself for giving so much away to Sai.

Sai smiled to himself. Oh how he could use this newfound friendship to his advantage. He looked forward to seeing Kira after school today.

Andrew couldn't believe it; for once the transfer program had done something beneficial. Kira now had someone to rely on. He was sure that Murrue and Erica knew this, but this girl was attached at the arm! One day, and this is what had happened. He took another sip of coffee before starting class, and thought, 'Good brew today.'

Class went on as usual, Lacus sat next to Kira like in all their classes. There always seemed to be an open seat or two next to Kira, probably because nobody wanted to risk their social status, or worse, their health by being associated with him. Everybody at the school knew Sai's gang was out to get Kira and anyone associated with him.

The final bell rang, and Kira and Lacus were heading out of school, when Kira suddenly remembered that he forgot something in his locker. It was the assignment sheet for match class, and while he was pretty sure he knew what the assignment was, he wanted to be safe. "Hey Lacus, could you wait here for a second, I forgot something in my locker."

"Oh of course Kira. Would you like me to come with you?"

"No, that's okay. I will be back in a second" Kira replied. He took off and sprinted to his locker to get his assignment sheet. He opened his locker, grabbed the sheet, and then sprinted right back. His locker was pretty close, so he was back in about a minute. However, when he came back, he was not very happy with the situation.

Sai's group had been tailing Kira and Lacus, hoping to get a shot at them before they left the school. When Kira left to go to his locker, they saw it as the perfect opportunity. Sai grabbed Lacus and they waited for Kira to come back. Luckily most of the kids had left school already, so there weren't any bystanders. Shortly after they grabbed Lacus, they saw Kira running back down the hall.

"Oh, Kira, what a pleasant surprise."

"What do you want Sai. And why do you have Lacus. Let her go, she has nothing to do with this." Kira practically begged the last part. This is why Lacus should have never been involved with him.

"Oh my. So demanding Kira. But Lacus has everything to do with this. See, I have a minor problem. My friends here aren't the sharpest marbles in he box, and they aren't doing so well in school. Everyone knows you're a great computer programmer, so we were hoping, or insisting rather, that you would help "raise" their grades. If you don't, well let's just say that I feel bad for Miss Clyne here. Boys! Grab Kira so he can't do anything we wouldn't want him to. " Sai was loving this. Kira looked like he would do anything to protect this stupid girl from the PLANTs.

It was killing Kira to say this, but he mumbled, ""Sai...I can't do that. You know better than me the security systems Principal Durandal has installed on the network here. There is no way I could do what you're asking." Kira could get through the system, but he was hoping to reason with Sai.

Sai of course knew this, which made his plan even better. He was going to push Kira to his breaking point today. Sai looked and Kira with a false frown on his face, "Well Kira, I'm sorry you think that." With that, Sai pulled Lacus's hair, forcing her to look at the ceiling. Lacus gave a scream of fright and pain from what Sai was doing. But Sai wasn't done yet. Sai gave a nod to Shani.

Shani saw the nod and walked in front of Lacus. He gave a swift weak punch to Lacus's stomach.. Lacus's eyes went wide, and she gasped in pain. It wasn't a strong punch, but to someone who wasn't used to being beaten up, well it still hurt.

Kira was forced to watch this, and when he saw the look in Lacus's eyes after she was punched, he couldn't take it. How could he let this happen! Maybe now Lacus will understand why we shouldn't be friends.

Sai let go of Lacus's hair, and she fell to the ground, clinging to her stomach. Then, the last person Kira wanted to see, walked in through the front doors. It was Cagalli. He never wanted Cagalli to see what he had to do deal with at school. She didn't need to know these things.

Cagalli couldn't believe what she saw. Was this Kira's "hold up" every day? She couldn't believe this. She was going to run in and try and help, until she saw the look in Kira's eyes when he realized she was here. She had seen that look before. His eyes were harsh and determined, and she knew Kira was telling her to stay away, so she went to hide behind a pillar in corner of the hallway.

Kira couldn't let Cagalli get sucked into this situation. He couldn't believe he let any of this happen. His body filled with anger. He had only felt this anger once before, and that was when Djibril had hurt Cagalli. However, it was different this time. His mind went clear as he visualized a seed bursting in his mind. He could understand everything, and he could feel raw power flowing through his veins.

They all saw the look in Kira's eyes. There was no emotion. His eyes were blank. It was as if he didn't care about himself, as if he had nothing left to live for. Sai thought he had finally broke Kira. 'Ah, I have finally beaten you Djibril…"

Kira looked at Sai, all his hatred, his anger, and his sorrows were directed towards him at that moment. He was the one who hurt Lacus, his only friend. He threatened one of the best things in his life at the moment. Then Kira realized it, Lacus wasn't just his friend, she was his everything. He should have realized this when she hugged him, the safety he felt in her arms, the trust he felt when he talked to her. Kira could not afford to lose this friendship. He realized Lacus was almost as important to him as Cagalli.

Kira wrapped his foot behind Clotho's heel and then swiftly pulled it back towards him.

Clotho was caught off guard and lost his balance as his footing was pulled out from under him. He loosened his grip from the surprise of the attack.

Kira felt Clotho lose grip and quickly removed his arm from his grip. Kira turned his body to be face to face with Orga.

Orga never had time to react. Kira hit him right in the side of the neck with the edge of his hand, knocking him out on contact.

After dealing with Orga, Kira turned back to Clotho, knowing that he was not done yet. Kira saw Clotho regaining his balance after being tripped. He could see the hatred and humiliation in Clotho's eyes, but before Clotho could do anything, Kira threw a quick hard punch into Clotho's stomach, successfully knocking him out.

After disposing of Orga and Clotho, Kira began walking towards Shani.

Shani wasn't going to let the punk that they had been beating up since sixth grade get the best of him. So he charged with all his might, throwing fists left and right as fast as he could. Shani was giving everything he had to try and take out Kira.

Kira dodged Shani's frenzied attack, and waited for an opening to counter. He saw the opening when Shani put all of his energy into one punch at Kira's face. Kira turned his body just enough to avoid the punch, and then moved in towards Shani while his guard was down.

Kira finally had his chance. Kira swung his knee into the Shani's side.

Shani couldn't believe. He lost to Kira. 'I guess we never realized how strong he really is...' Shani, lost his balance, and fell to the ground. An ugly noise filled the room as Shani's shoulder popped out of it's socket from the force of the fall. Shani wouldn't let Kira see how much pain he was in, however, and bit the side of his lip to prevent himself from screaming in pain.

Kira noticed that Clotho and Orga were starting to wake up from their stupor. Kira had tried not to hit them too hard; he didn't want them to be passed out on the floor for hours, only to be found by a teacher leaving the school. Kira turned to the three of them and stated, with no emotion in his voice, "You three have lost. Now leave."

Orga and Clotho were not the smartest kids, but they were not dumb enough to try and fight Kira. They not only lost, they had been humiliated. The kid that they had been using as a punching bag since sixth grade, the kid that never fought back, finally fought back, and defeated all three of them in less than a minute. The two of them knew they couldn't win, so they helped up Shani and made their exit.

Cagalli watched in horror and amazement at her brother's speed and strength. 'This must be why Djibril gives Kira all those stupid drugs. He knows how strong Kira is...but how does he know?'

Sai was still holding Lacus, but he felt his time was running out. He let go of Lacus, and she fell to her knees from the pain of being punched. Sai made to leave with Shani, Orga, and Clotho, but Kira cut him off.

Kira had moved in front of Sai as he was making his get away with friends. He was about to get revenge on Sai for what he had done to Lacus and for what Sai had done to him over the years, when a voice broke in.

"Kira, let him go. You won, and he knows it." Lacus pleaded. That stopped Kira in his tracks. The sound of her voice borough Kira back to his senses. Kira stepped to the side, letting Sai go.

Kira walked over to Lacus and fell to his knees in front of her. "La-Lacus...Lacus I'm so sorry! I should have never let this happen. This is why you and I can't be friends. It's not worth it-"

"Kira, it is worth it. You can't run away from your problems like this. You have to let some people in. You can't keep taking responsibility for everything. It is too much for one person to handle." Lacus started standing up, she had finally gotten her breath back.

"NO! That's a lie! You're wrong... I-I can handle everything by myself. That way...that way it is only me who gets hurt. Only me, and nobody else!" He was shaking his furiously, tears threatening to fall down his face.

Lacus quickly grabbed Kira in a tight embrace. "Oh Kira...you can't do everything yourself. You have to let other people help you. ...Let me help you."

Kira felt the safety of Lacus's embrace again. He felt his pain being taken away. And when Lacus told him to let her help, he couldn't deny. He just nodded his head. He had wanted to do this all by himself. That way, nobody would ever have to get hurt again, and he would never have to cry a single tear.

Cagalli watched this all take place. She didn't know what to say, so she walked over to the two of them and hugged Kira tightly. How could he go through all of this. How could he do all of this for her?

Lacus opened her eyes when she felt someone else's arms wrapping around Kira. When she saw who it was, she slowly removed her arms, and backed up a little. She decided to let the siblings have their moment.

Kira didn't have to open his eyes to see who it was. He could always tell when it was Cagalli. He returned the embrace, and whispered "Cagalli..."

"Kira..." and with that, Cagalli removed her arms to look at Kira,. Kira opened his eyes to look at Cagalli.

Cagalli looked up at Kira with tears in her eyes, and she started to, lightly, hit her fists on his chest. "You're so stupid Kira. You're so stupid! You know that right?"

"Yeah I know. I love you too Cagalli."

Cagalli cried harder at that comment. "I love you Kira, but you can't do everything. Lacus is right. You can't keep doing this to yourself. Every night, it hurts me even more to see you so hurt, and knowing you're doing it for me makes it even harder."

"Cagalli...I made a promise. I will always protect you, no matter what." With that, Kira looked up at the clock, he didn't realize how late it was. "Cagalli, we got to get home. It's getting late, and we don't need Djibril to get angry because his diner wasn't ready..."

Cagalli nodded. That was when Lacus spoke up. "Pardon me for listening, but, Kira, if you want, I could drive you two home. I have a car here, so it would be really easy."

"That is very gracious of you-" Kira started.

"And we would be glad to take you up on that kind offer!" Cagalli nearly yelled, successfully cutting Kira off. She knew he didn't accept charity, but Cagalli was not going pass this up. She didn't really mind walking, but she couldn't pass up the chance for Kira and Lacus to get closer. She knew that Lacus was good for Kira.

Kira just glared at Cagalli, but he had to admit, it would be nice to talk with Lacus more. Lacus was grateful that Cagalli accepted. She wanted to spend some more time with Kira.

They walked out to the parking lot, and Lacus led them to her car. They were amazed to find out that Lacus drove a _pink_ Lexus. It was a small four door sedan, but it was a Lexus, which made it very comfortable.

Cagalli quickly ran to the back seat, making sure Kira sat up front with Lacus. Oh how she loved doing this to Kira. Kira took the passenger seat, and Lacus started the car.

"So, where do you live?"

"876 Michigan Street."

Lacus nodded and plugged it into her navigation system.

"_ETA: twenty-two minutes. Distance 12 miles."_

Lacus was amazed. The two of them walk this every morning? What is wrong with their parents? Can't they drive them? Or maybe they just don't have the money...

Cagalli decided it was getting too quiet. "Hey Lacus, can we put the radio on?"

"Oh, of course. I completely forgot. Any station you want in particular?"

"Um...no, whatever you want."

Lacus put on her usual station, a station that didn't play any music from the PLANTs. It was the top 20 songs countdown on the radio, well the top 20 songs on earth. The radio station was clearly biased towards earth bands, which worked well in Lacus's favor.

Cagalli heard the song, and instantly began singing along. Kira and Lacus couldn't help but laugh at Cagalli's antics. It was pretty funny to hear Cagalli butcher the song as she sang along completely out of tune and missing half of the lyrics.

Before they knew it, Lacus was pulling up in front of the Djibril household. Lacus was in awe. The house was huge. It was a large classical Mansion, probably from the 19th Century. Lacus thought that she lived in a large house in the PLANTs, but it was nothing compared to this house. 'Well it's not for lack of money that Kira and Cagalli have to walk twelve miles to school...' It was funny though. There was a large six-car garage, yet Kira didn't have a car. You would think that with that much money and space, Kira would at least get a cheap car to drive to school, or at least a ride from their parents. Lacus knew something was off, but she had to get to know Kira better before she could start trying to solve his problems. Then she had an idea. "Hey Kira, you're not too far out of my way. Would you want me to pick you up in the mornings. You could probably get some extra sleep that way." So that was a bit of a stretch, Lacus lived on the opposite side of town, but to her, it would be worth getting up 20 minutes earlier.

Oh how Kira wanted to say yes, but he knew it was better if they got up early and left before Djibril woke up. That way they didn't risk anything, and Djibril wouldn't notice their new friend. "Um, that's okay. Cagalli and I enjoy the walk anyways. It's relaxing."

"Oh okay." Lacus replied, sounding a little disappointed. "Well how about this. Give me your hand." Kira complied, and she wrote something on top of his hand. "That is my cell number. If you ever need me, or even if you just want to talk, call me. Got it?"

Kira just nodded, he was too stunned to form a complete sentence, and his face had gone bright red. Cagalli started laughing at him. After she got over her bout of laughter, she turned to Lacus and said, "Thanks for the ride! We'll see you tomorrow."

"Oh yes, see you tomorrow. Goodbye!" Lacus replied waving, and got in her car to drive home.

This was the start of the blossoming friendship between Kira and Lacus.

A/N: Please read and review. Any kind of review is accepted.


	4. A Stubborn Mind

Disclaimer: I obviously do not own Gundam SEED, Gundam SEED Destiny, or any of the characters related to the show.

A couple weeks passed. Lacus and Kira were becoming closer with every passing day. Lacus was starting to get Kira to open up a little to her, but no important details. In fact, Lacus still felt like she barely knew Kira. She knew what his likes and dislikes were. She knew his favorite food, favorite color, favorite song, and favorite movies. While it was good to know the small things, she wanted to know about Kira's family, about his life, and wished that he would talk to her about his problems. She knew he had plenty, he could see it in his eyes. In the past two or so weeks, Lacus had acquired a very keen understanding of his moods and emotions. She knew when he was upset, sad, confused, worried, and happy, though the last one was rare. She wished that Kira could trust her enough for to tell her those things. She had tried to ask him once about why he was so sad, and Kira stopped talking for the day.

Kira, on the other hand, had finally come to not only accept Lacus's friendship, but find that he loved Lacus's company. Every time he was away from Lacus, he felt himself thinking about her, and wishing he were with her. He had thought about calling her a couple of times, but he was too afraid he wouldn't know what to say, or worse, Djibril would see he had been talking to someone. The last thing he wanted was for Djibril to find out about his friendship with Lacus. He knew Cagalli, his sister who loved him, was very important to him, but Lacus was different. He felt a strong connection. She knew and understood him almost perfectly, and there had been few times where he had almost told her his problems. He knew, though, that he could not let Lacus figure out how bad his problems and his life really were. He remembered when Lacus had asked him what was wrong, and how he almost cracked.

_Flashback_

_It had been a rough night. Djibril had beaten him, again. He had gotten very good at covering his pain and suffering, and hiding the injuries he sustained from these near daily rituals. However the, the night before had been really hard for Kira. Cagalli had almost gotten injured. She didn't realize that Djibril was home, so she had walked downstairs to ask Kira a question on a math worksheet she had. Cagalli had just thought the clanking noises down in the kitchen were from Kira cleaning the dishes from dinner or reorganizing things in the Kitchen. _

_Cagalli walked into the kitchen, looking at her worksheet, and asked, "Hey Kira, could you help me with this math problem? I just can't seem to-" but cut herself off when she looked up to see Kira lying on the floor with a black eye and bloody nose. Cagalli could tell he had been drugged, but she could still see the fear and understanding in Kira's eyes. Cagalli noticed that Djibril had left the room, and was beginning to wonder where he had gone._

_Cagalli never heard Djibril come up behind her. Djibril spun her around, so she was facing him and give her a swift punch to the stomach. She crumpled under the force of Djibril's punch and mumbled Kira's name as she lost consciousness. Djibril dropped her on the floor after she passed out._

_Kira watched in horror as his beloved sister passed out in front of him. He couldn't believe it. He had failed her. He said he would protect her, he promised he would. He failed again. He was worthless. Kira's mind spiraled downward, thinking of how he was a failure._

_Djibril was about to give Cagalli a good kick, when Kira noticed his leg moving backward in preparation. He had failed once already, he couldn't let Djibril hurt his sister anymore though. Kira's anger and need to protect his sister had caused his eyes to go blank. Kira may have been drugged, but he wasn't going to let that stop him from protecting his sister. He used all his strength to get up and run over to his sister. He laid out, sliding across the floor (collecting a couple of burns from the hardwood floor), his back to Djibril, his body covering Cagalli. Right as he covered Cagalli, Djibril's foot came crashing into Kira's back. His body screamed in pain, but he had protected Cagalli. That was all that really mattered to him. As his world turned black, he unconsciously wrapped his arms tightly around Cagalli._

_Kira had woken up a little while later on the floor of their bedroom, looking at the clock he noticed it was about 10:20 in the evening. His arms were still wrapped around Cagalli, as if trying to protect her from an invisible threat. Kira stood up, lifting Cagalli up with him, and walked over to their bed. He gingerly placed his sister on the bed, and tucked her under the covers. He leaned down and kissed her on the forehead, whispering, "I'm sorry I failed you Cagalli." With that, he sat himself on the floor next to the side of the bed. He felt so worthless; he couldn't even get himself to get into his own bed._

_Cagalli had woken up in the middle of the night. At first she was confused where she was, but then she realized that she was in her bed. Then she remembered what happened. She remembered Djibril punching her, and remembered the fearful look in Kira's. She noticed that her stomach was sore from where Djibril had punched her, but other than that she was fine. She heard the even and calm breathing of her brother and looked over the side of bed to find him with his knees pulled up to his chest and his head leaning back against the bed. He looked so calm sleeping, free from all his pain. Cagalli wished his face always carried that innocence with it, but instead it carried the pain from Djibril and the responsibility of protecting her. Yet, she could see that tears had stained his face. She realized it was because of her. She wasn't sure exactly why Kira was crying, but she knew the root of the problem was she. It stabbed at her heart, and she desperately wished that her brother could live a normal life. But, as fate would have it, it wasn't meant to be, and Kira would go on protecting Cagalli, and she knew that._

_The next day had been rough. Physically, Kira and Cagalli were both fine. They may have had a bruise here and there, but nothing serious. Mentally though, Kira was seriously distraught from the night before. Cagalli figured it was because she got hurt and he couldn't do anything about it. Cagalli kept telling Kira that she was okay, but he wouldn't have any of it. Kira barely said a word the entire day. He would barely speak or look at Cagalli, and when he did, all she saw was pain and regret. She knew Kira wasn't going to talk to her since she was the source of the problem, so when they got to school, Cagalli quickly went to find Lacus._

_Over the past few weeks Kira and Lacus had grown a lot closer. Kira had no problem talking with her, he still had not called her and he would never talk about his problems or anything that was bothering him, but they always found making conversation to be rather easy. Lacus knew she had to figure something out to make Kira talk about his problems because normal conversation was not cutting it. She needed a different approach._

_Cagalli and Lacus had also become good friends. When Cagalli found out that Lacus was trying to help Kira open up, she always tried to help Lacus in some way. Cagalli never really tells Lacus anything Kira wouldn't tell her, but she tries to give Lacus tip offs when Kira is upset, vulnerable, and injured. It does help Lacus to help be prepared, but Lacus can usually tell Kira's mood by looking in his eyes._

_Cagalli told Lacus that Kira wasn't even talking to her. Lacus was worried they got in a fight, but Cagalli seemed more worried than upset by it. Lacus wasn't exactly sure how she could get Kira to open up, but she was going to try and get at least something out of him. She just had to get him in the opportune moment._

_Later that day, Kira and Lacus were walking to their second period class, Sewing 101. They were in a hallway that was completely empty and Lacus felt that this was that opportune time to talk Kira, even though he hadn't said a word the entire day. "Hey Kira, what's wrong? It looks like your dreams are so sad, but I cannot understand why."_

_Lacus surprised Kira, but he realized he shouldn't have been because she always had a way of seeing through his fake facade. She always knew how he was feeling even if she didn't know what happened. "It's nothing, I'm am just tired. Don't worry about me."_

_Lacus quickly grabbed Kira by the shoulders. She turned him to face her and made him look into her eyes. "Kira! I know something is wrong. You cannot bottle up all these problems of yours. Sometimes people need help. One person cannot do everything and you need to understand that. I want to help you Kira. Please trust in me Kira. Please."_

_When Kira looked into Lacus's blue eyes, he almost lost his self-control. He almost spilled everything to her. He couldn't help it, he felt so safe around, and he felt like he could tell her anything. But he had to keep his secrets for her protection, no matter how much he wanted to tell her. "Lacus" He paused for a second, a debate raging in his head on whether or not he should tell her anything. "I just can't tell you. It's just better if you don't know." He quickly looked down; disappointed with himself, but thinking he had done the right thing. He was hurting everybody he knew. He couldn't protect Cagalli last night, and now he was failing Lacus._

"_Oh Kira." She knew he was so close to telling her. At least she made progress today. "If you ever need me, I am always here for you. Always, no matter what."_

"_Thanks Lacus."_

_End Flashback_

_S_ince that day, Lacus had not made any more progress. Kira and Lacus talked about everything and anything that did not involve Kira's personal problems. However with each passing day, Kira became more and more important to her, and not only that, Lacus wanted to mean more and more to Kira. First, however, Kira needed to completely trust her. Lacus needed some help.

A/N: Please read and review. Any kind of review is accepted.


	5. Help?

Disclaimer: I obviously do not own Gundam SEED, Gundam SEED Destiny, or any of the characters related to the show.

Lacus arrived home at her exchanger parents' household. She had been in the town for a couple of weeks, so she new her "new" parents well. She was living with the Yamato family. They were a relatively young couple that wanted to see what it would be like to have a teenager. Mr. Yamato usually worked until five or six o'clock, while Mrs. Yamato stayed home and kept the house tidy. They lived in a nice house. It wasn't very large, but it wasn't small. It was a two-story house with three bedrooms, three and a half bathrooms (one for each room and a half bathroom for the basement). It was nicely furnished, and it had a warm welcoming atmosphere.

"Mrs. Yamato, are you home?" Lacus called out.

"Oh, why hello Lacus. How was school today?"

"It was wonderful! I'm still trying to get Kira to open up, but I think he is getting better. "

"That is wonderful! I'm glad you are enjoying yourself here."

"Yes, I sure am. Well I must be off, I have a lot of homework I have to finish."

"Good luck! And don't work too hard."

"Of course not Mrs. Yamato." And with that, Lacus ran upstairs and booted up her computer. She needed to talk to her friend Athrun. Athrun was Lacus's best friend from the PLANTs, and she grew up with him. He was like a brother to her. Athrun was still on the PLANTs, so she couldn't call him. The only way to reach him was online, and she needed his advice. She knew she would have some advice about what to do with Kira.

Lacus sat down and logged on to her instant messenger service as HaroL25. As she expected Athrun, JusticeZGMF9, was online.

HaroL25: Oh Athrun, you are just the person I needed to talk to.

JusticeZGMF9: Oh, and why is that Lacus?

HaroL25: Athrun Zala, I need your advice. See there is this boy. He was my first friend here. We have known each other for a few weeks now.

JusticeZGMF9: A boy? Lacus, the only guys you have liked are your father and I, yet the first friend you meet is a boy? What happened to you?

HaroL25: I know that Athrun. Well anyways, you can meet him when you come tomorrow. The only thing is, he is really shy and closed off.

JusticeZGMF9: Yeah, my shuttle actually takes off in an hour. I look forward to coming to this new school. Anyways, do you have any idea what the problem is?

HaroL25: What I have figured out so far is that his last name is Djibril, but he doesn't want to be associated with that name. He has a memory from the past that haunts him, but I don't know what it is. And, I am his only friend. In fact, I am his first friend excluding his sister. He does not tell me much about his personal life. I have tried to learn more, but he is very closed off.

JusticeZGMF9: Wow...Lacus; you sure know how to pick them! Wait...you like him don't you? And don't lie to me.

HaroL25: Yes. I grow closer to him with each passing day. I cannot help it.

JusticeZGMF9: How long have you known him?

HaroL25: Three weeks and two days.

JusticeZGMF9: Lacus, you have only known him for a couple of weeks, you have never liked any other guys, and yet you are falling head over heels for a kid that seems to have more problems than ZAFT does with EAF.

HaroL25: Look, I don't know what it is, but can't help but feel safe when I am with him. I can tell how nice he is, and all I have to do is figure out how to get through his defenses. I have felt this way since I first met him, and my feelings have only gotten stronger.

JusticeZGMF9: Fine, perhaps there is such thing as "love at first sight." So what is his name?

HaroL25: Kira, no more, no less. If you mention his last name, Djibril, you can see fear flash through his eyes, and then anger. It is rather odd. I think there is a lot more to this than I know about.

JusticeZGMF9: It seems so...wait, Djibril, as in Lord Djibril is his father?

HaroL25: I am not sure. Why?

JusticeZGMF9: Well, if it is Lord Djibril, then that is vice president of Blue Cosmos. He is second in command to Muruta Azrael, and he is the leader of LOGOS. Maybe they aren't proud of what their father is doing?

HaroL25: No, it can't be him. Kira is a coordinator.

JusticeZGMF9: How do you know? But yeah, that would make sense. I just remembered that Djibril isn't married either.

Lacus typed out the story of her first day, when she was sharing the book with Kira in social studies.

HaroL25: At first I thought he just was not reading, but afterwards when we did the review questions, he had every answer perfect. He practically had an essay for each one. There is no way a natural could have that kind of ability. In fact his abilities seemed to surpass that of a well skilled coordinator.

JusticeZGMF9: Wow...it's like he is the "ultimate coordinator" or something. Haha

HaroL25: The ultimate coordinator? There was a rumor about that once right? It was that someone had made the ultimate coordinator, a perfect specimen, if you will.

JusticeZGMF9: Yeah, I think the people who started it tried to cover their rumor with something like a Blue Cosmos terrorist attack killed him or something.

HaroL25: Oh yes, but back to my problem.

JusticeZGMF9: Oh yeah, you're problem. How are we going to hook you up with this kid?

HaroL25: NO! That's not what I meant and you know it Athrun.

JusticeZGMF9: Yeah yeah, I know. So what did you mean you are his only friend?

HaroL25: Well, I am just that. I am his one and only friend. He has a lot of enemies in the school. Nobody wants to associate themselves with him because of Sai's gang.

JusticeZGMF9: Sai's gang?

HaroL25: There are four of them. Sai is the ringleader, he is a smart kid, but not so strong, so he leaves all the hard to work to his cohorts. There are three of them, one with short green hair, one with red hair, and the last guy with long green hair. The one with long green hair's name is Shani, I think.

JusticeZGMF9: How do you know this?

HaroL25: Well, I sorta met them

JusticeZGMF9: And how did you meet them Lacus? If they hate Kira so much, and you are his friend...

HaroL25: Well, it is not important Athrun.

JusticeZGMF9: Lacus!

HaroL25: Oh my, all right. Well, they tried to get to Kira by using me as a bargaining chip if you will.

JusticeZGMF9: A bargaining chip?

HaroL25: Okay, so they tried to make Kira do something he couldn't, and when he wouldn't comply...well they hit me...to change his mind

JusticeZGMF9: THEY WHAT! Lacus!

HaroL25: I'm a big girl Athrun. I can take care of myself.

JusticeZGMF9: Lacus, I am going to tear those guys to pieces when I get there! You just show me who they are!

HaroL25: Well, Kira sort of did that already. It was kind of scary actually.

JusticeZGMF9: What do you mean?

HaroL25: Well, after they hit me, Kira got really angry, and his eyes just went blank. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. I don't know how it happened, but he knocked out all three of them in less than a minute. I think Kira broke Shani's arm as well. Then Kira was going to get Sai, but I stopped him.

JusticeZGMF9: he beat all three of them in less then a minute? Are these kids that weak or is Kira really that powerful?

HaroL25: All I know is that they aren't weak because Kira had been struggling to get out of their grip before. It wasn't until after Kira...snapped...that he was able to do anything.

JusticeZGMF9: Two of them were holding him?

HaroL25: Yes…

JusticeZGMF9: Well at least you found a guy who will protect you :P

HaroL25: Thanks Athrun. Well it has been a couple of weeks since then, and they haven't bothered Kira or I since.

JusticeZGMF9: Well anyways, it seems like this kid is just a huge mystery. I look forward to meeting him.

HaroL25: Yes. Maybe you can help him open up Athrun.

JusticeZGMF9: If anyone is going to help him open up, it's you. In one day, you managed to befriend a kid who never had any... But I will do what I can.

HaroL25: Thanks Athrun.

JusticeZGMF9: Yeah any time. Hey...does he know about you?

HaroL25: No. not yet, but I am going to have to tell him soon. Luckily music from the plants has not made itself popular around here, or else I would be in big trouble.

JusticeZGMF9: Yeah. If he is going to see you as a true friend, you can't keep something like that from him.

HaroL25: Yes, I know.

JusticeZGMF9: Well I have to get ready for my shuttle. I will see you tomorrow.

HaroL25: Bye. See you then.

Lacus leaned back in her chair and sighed to herself. Telling Kira that she was Lacus Clyne, the famous pop singer from the PLANTs hopefully wouldn't be that big of a deal. But first, she needed to learn more about Kira, and find out why she felt so safe around Kira.

A/N: Please read and review. Any kind of review is accepted.


	6. A Rough Night

Disclaimer: I obviously do not own Gundam SEED, Gundam SEED Destiny, or any of the characters related to the show.

Kira and Cagalli, on the other hand, were not having such a great night. Apparently things had not been so good at work for Djibril.

Kira and Cagalli had arrived home about two hours before Djibril came home. They decided to use the time to get their homework done. Kira didn't have too much homework, so he finished with a half hour of starting, and he helped Cagalli with everything after that. Kira never gave Cagalli the answers, but he was always a big help to her because whenever she had a question he could always find a way to explain it that made it easy for Cagalli to understand.

After Kira and Cagalli finished their homework, Kira went downstairs to make dinner for everybody. Since he wasn't sure what mood Djibril was in, and Kira had some extra energy, he decided to make a nice fancy meal tonight. He made Filet Mignon in a rich red wine reduction sauce with garlic mashed potatoes on the side. He also made a nice chop salad for an appetizer.

Kira called Cagalli down for dinner. Cagalli was amazed at what he had just made. They sat down at the kitchen table and began eating.

"Oh my gosh! Kira, this food is amazing!"

"Thanks. I figure this way, if Djibril is in a bad mood, maybe the good food will help calm him-" but Kira was cut off.

"Too bad it won't be enough to qualm my anger tonight kid."

Kira immediately looked at Cagalli, and mouthed, "Go upstairs."

Cagalli immediately took off, knowing what would happen if she got in the way. She prayed that Kira would be okay as she ran as fast as she could up the stairs.

Kira turned around to look at Djibril after Cagalli was safely up the stairs, and said, "Your food is ready, sir."

"Oh why thank you. Unfortunately, I don't have much of an appetite tonight. What a waste though, eh?"

Kira didn't respond. Kira was getting nervous. He didn't know what Djibril would do in this frenzied state. Usually Djibril didn't talk to Kira, and if he did it was only a sentence or two. Tonight, though, Djibril was almost holding a conversation with Kira, of course it was only to mock him, but nonetheless, it showed that Djibril was not in a good state of mind.

"Well, you can talk can't you?" Djibril yelled as he chucked his plate of food at Kira. The plate just missed Kira and shattered against the wall.

Kira stood there with wide eyes. He had never seen Djibril this angry before, and he knew that if Djibril gave him that cocktail of drugs, he would be in for it. Kira began thinking about fighting Djibril before he could pull out the drugs, but he came to the conclusion that it was too dangerous. He remembered Djibril's threat of using Cagalli if he ever fought back.

When Kira broke from his reverie, he saw Djibril furiously rummaging through the kitchen drawers. After a couple of seconds, Djibril pulled out a canister of drugs, and slowly walked towards Kira with a crazed and menacing look in his eyes. Kira had never seen Djibril like this before.

"Tonight is going to be very memorable for you, I hope." And with that, Djibril quickly injected the canister into Kira, right in the jugular vein.

The drugs worked fast, and within a couple of seconds the drugs were in full effect. The pain by itself was never too bad for Kira, but it really started adding up when Djibril would hit him. The side effect that really bothered him was the muscle relaxant; he was never able to defend himself. The relaxant made it so his muscles were extremely lethargic. It took most of his strength to stay standing.

Djibril could tell the drugs had taken effect on Kira. 'Now the fun begins' he thought. He advanced slowly, knowing that Kira couldn't do anything in his state, not that he would do anything without the drugs since his sister's safety was on the line.

Djibril started off with the usual, using Kira as a punching bag. Djibril was throwing punches left and right, hitting Kira in the stomach, chest, and face. Usually, the "therapeutic" effect of punching Kira repeatedly mixed with his groans of pain was enough to help Djibril start to relax, but tonight it only made him angrier.

Kira was used to this. It wasn't too bad for Kira, the drugs just made it hard for him to do anything. Kira was trying his best to stay standing while surviving all the punches Djibril was throwing at him.

When Djibril was bored with using Kira as a punching, he took one final swing at Kira's face. Djibril slammed his fist into Kira's jaw, splitting his lip open knocking him to the ground. Kira groaned in agonizing pain. Djibril usually never started out so rough. He usually liked to take things slow, but tonight, Djibril wanted to see Kira suffer like never before.

Kira was on the ground, waiting for what Djibril was going to do next, and try as he might, he could not find the strength to stand up again. The muscle relaxant was too strong, so Kira laid on the ground waiting, praying for the best. He knew this was where the real damage would be done. Kira just had to survive this part and he would okay he thought. He knew the kicks were the worst, especially if Djibril broke a rib. No matter how fast his body healed, broken ribs were the worst. They always caused severe pain and made it hard for him to breathe during the week. No matter what, though, Kira was not about to give up in this, and continued trying to get up and regain balance.

Djibril looked down at Kira, watching him struggle as he tried to get up.

"What's the matter boy? Can't get up? You are pathetic!" Djibril yelled as he kicked Kira in the side. Djibril laughed at Kira's cry of pain, and kicked him again. Djibril gave Kira one last good kick to chest, and he heard a satisfying cracking noise mixed with a loud scream of pain.

When he felt the kick break a rib, he knew this one was bad. Kira could have sworn that he felt like his lungs had been pierced. After screaming so loudly, he had released all of his air, and he was now having trouble catching his breath. Every time he inhaled, he felt the pain racking through his diaphragm. Kira prayed that Djibril was done for the night. Tonight was the worst beating he had ever received, and Kira was not sure how much more he could stand.

Luck was not on Kira's side, as the kicking was not cutting it for Djibril. He needed more. Djibril looked around his kitchen, trying to think of something he could use. Then he saw it. The power chord of the kitchen lamp. It would be perfect. He ripped the power chord out of the lamp, and walked over to Kira, who was whimpering a little on the floor.

"Now the fun begins boy. See, the punching and kicking just isn't cutting tonight. So I have a new toy to use on you. I hope you find this experience to be, shall we say, exquisite."

Kira was now scared for his life. He was helpless. He could not do anything in his state, and nobody was there to save him. His mind kept flashing pictures of Cagalli and Lacus, and he hoped he would be able to make it out of this one, as he waited for what Djibril would do next.

Djibril started swinging the power chord in the air, enjoying the swishing noise it was making as he swing it, thinking how much it will hurt Kira to be hit by the two metal stubs at this speed. Without warning, Djibril took his first swing. The plug sliced across Kira's back, earning a scream of pain from Kira's mouth. Djibril laughed, and began hitting Kira more, trying to swing the plug faster and faster.

Kira couldn't believe the pain, each whip made it worse as the plug cut new wounds in uncut skin as well as the cuts from previous whips. He could barely breathe from his broken rib, but he couldn't stop himself from screaming. The pain as getting to be too much for him.

Djibril was throwing all his anger and hatred into each and every whip. He was laughing hysterically as he watched Kira try to escape the pain. Each and every hit had a nice resounding crack, and it made Djibril happy to see Kira struggling so much in vain. However, in Djibril's craze, he hadn't realized the two hits he got on Kira's face, leaving four gashes in his left cheek.

Kira could feel the warm blood running down his back and soaking his shirt. Everything was starting to go black, and the only thing he could think about was Lacus. He wished she was there, there to comfort him, to help him, and to protect him. He needed her. He kept begging, "Help me Lacus. Please help me." However, Kira was slurring from all the pain, and Djibril thought he was only moaning in pain.

It wasn't long before a large dark red puddle surrounded Kira. The metal edges of the plug were ripping open Kira's shirt and cutting gashes into Kira's back. Djibril realized that it was time to stop. He didn't need the police on his tail anymore than they already were. He picked Kira up by his hair and dragged him up the stairs. He opened the door to Kira's room, where Cagalli was curled up in a ball crying, and threw Kira in. Djibril didn't say a word; he just left and slammed the door shut.

Cagalli had been in her room, listening to Kira scream for the past half hour. She had no idea what had happened, but she knew that it was the worst beating Kira had ever received. By the time the time the screaming had actually stopped, Cagalli was crying so hard to herself that she didn't even notice.

Cagalli heard the door slam, and looked over to see Kira lying on the floor with his blood soaked shirt and whimpering in pain. Cagalli quickly ran over to Kira.

"Oh my God, Kira! How could he do this to you? Lo-Look at all those cuts! Hold on, let me go get a towel, and we will get that shirt off of you."

Cagalli rushed to their bathroom, grabbed some towels and a bowl of warm water with soap to clean up some of Kira's wounds. As soon as Cagalli came back, she began cutting off Kira's shirt before the blood fused it to his skin. She could hear Kira groan as she removed his shirt and opened up some wounds. As soon as she removed his shirt, she grabbed the towel and dipped it in the water and started cleaning up his cuts. It made her angry because she felt so useless, but it was the only thing she could do.

After Cagalli cleaned up Kira's cuts, she dried off his back and sat with him, hoping he would wake up soon so she could talk to him and get maybe get him in bed.

It was only a couple of minutes after Cagalli had finished cleaning his cuts when Kira woke up. He gave a groan of pain. The drugs were still in his system, and mixed with the pain from all the gashes, punches, and kicks, he could barely move.

"Oh Kira, thank God you are awake!"

"Yeah" Kira mumbled through the haze.

"Kira, we need to get you to bed" Cagalli said. "Can you get up?"

"No."

"What if I just lifted you up, I am strong enough to at least get you on the bed."

"No. I can't...move...ju-just get me a pi-pillow for my head."

"Oh Kira..." she said with tears in her eyes. She got up and quickly grabbed two pillows and a blanket. She decided that Kira was going to sleep on the floor, well then she would too.

"Kira, I got us a nice blanket, and I am going to sleep right next to you. So, if you need anything, I will be right here next to you. Okay?"

"I...love..." but Kira passed out before he could finish the sentence.

"I love you too, Kira, I love you too." Cagalli replied sadly, before kissing her brother on the top of his head.

A/N: Please read and review. Any kind of review is accepted.


	7. The Start of a Long Day

Disclaimer: I obviously do not own Gundam SEED, Gundam SEED Destiny, or any of the characters related to the show.

Cagalli woke up early the next morning and started getting everything ready. She knew Kira wouldn't be able to do much, if anything, so she wanted to do everything she could to make it easier. She even made some breakfast, which was putting together some simple buttermilk pancake mix, and leaving a note for Djibril to cook himself. She figured that her and Kira could go without breakfast for today; it would make things easier and faster for the both of them.

When Kira did finally wake, he was in agonizing pain. His body was quick to heal, but the damage dealt the night before by Djibril was too much for his it to handle. Kira was pretty sure that along with the dozens of cuts on his back, he had some nasty bruises on stomach, a split lip, some cuts on his face, and a few broken ribs. Kira used all his strength to stand up, but he could barely do that.

Cagalli walked in as he was trying to get up, and quickly rushed over to help him.

"Kira! Don't push yourself you are injured. You shouldn't even be going to school today."

Kira smiled at her, giving her that smile that he only showed her, and said, "I know, but it would be riskier to be home and have Djibril finding me. Who knows what he might do."

"I know, but how are we going to get you to school?"

"Don't worry about me, Cagalli. I will be fine. We can walk like we normally do." The truth of the matter was that he had no idea how they were going to make it. He could barely stand up, let alone walk, and there was no way he could wear his backpack with all the gashes on his back, and his broken ribs.

"Fine...but I'm not happy about this. You know that right?"

"Yeah, I know. But right now I need to go make breakfast."

"I already took care of that, don't worry. I really don't want you pushing yourself."

"Alright then, let's get going so we can make it to school in time."

"Yeah, I would agree, except first we need to get your uniform on you first."

"Heh heh, that would probably help wouldn't it?"

"Yeah."

Cagalli helped Kira put all his clothes on since there was no way he could do it alone in his condition. After that they walked out the door, and started heading to school. It had been a miracle that they had even gotten down the stairs. If it was that hard to walk down the stairs, Cagalli had no idea how they were going to make it all the way to school.

Cagalli had Kira's arm around her shoulder and her arms around his waist, trying to support him enough to walk. She was also carrying her and Kira's backpack since Kira couldn't do it himself. They had walked like this for a block, and then Kira couldn't walk any further. He was breathing hard, and even though he wanted to push on, Cagalli knew it was too much for him.

"Kira, you can't do it. It's too far, there is no way your body can handle the walk to school."

"Cagalli...I'm fine...Re-Really."

"You're lying, and we both know it."

"Alright...yo-you win.

Cagalli knew she had to think of something. They needed a way to get school, more for Kira's safety than anything. Then Cagalli remembered.

_Flashback_

_Lacus looked at Kira and said, "Give me your hand." _

_Kira complied, and she wrote something on top of his hand. "That is my cell number. If you ever need me, or even if you just want to talk, call me. Got it?"_

_End Flashback_

That was it. They could call Lacus. No matter how much Kira didn't want to bother her, they had to. It was their safest way to get to school. She knew that Lacus cared for Kira, and that she would have no problem coming to pick them up. Besides, it might help Kira realize how much Lacus cares for Kira Cagalli thought.

Cagalli grabbed Kira's hand, and what she found did not please her. Half the number had been washed away by blood. Great.

"Kira, do you remember Lacus's cell phone number?"

"Why?"

"Just yes or no here Kira."

"Um...yeah."

"Good. Now what is it?" And with that she pulled out her cell phone.

"1-754-639-4857"

Cagalli dialed the number as he spoke. "Kira, you better be right on this one."

The phone rang twice, and then there was an answer from a sweet voice. "Hello. Who is this?"

"Lacus, it's Cagalli. Sorry if I woke you up, but Kira and I need your help -"

"No we don't! Wh-What are you doing Cagalli!" Kira yelled. Cagalli gave Kira a look that said 'shut up,' and he did just that.

"Oh my. Well I would love to help if I can. What do you need?"

"Well, we need a ride to school..."

"Oh, well of course. I can do that. I will be at your house as soon as I can."

"Um…well we aren't at our house. We are about a block down the road. If you could just pick us up there...that would be great."

"Oh my, of course Cagalli. I will see you in a couple of minutes." And with that, they each hung up their phones.

"Cagalli, you shouldn't have done that. What were you thinking?"

"I was thinking of a safe way to get you to school. You know you can't walk the whole way, even with my help, we are out of the range the busses, and you can't be left at home with Djibril. Calling Lacus was the only way."

"Bu-But what are we going to tell her? ...I hope you have an excuse."

"Well...I...uh...was hoping we could maybe figure that out while we wait for her..."

"Cagalli! She can't figure out about Djibril. As great as it would be to not have to live with him...we could get sent to a more dangerous foster home...or worse...split up."

"I know Kira, we will think of something..."

"Yeah, well we gotta come up with something fast."

"Well...you could always say you were playing baseball and slid over a stick?"

"Oh man that is so bad!"

"Well I haven't heard you come up with anything good!"

"Yeah" Kira paused. "Well I guess if it's all we can come up with then it will have to do." Right as Kira said that Lacus pulled up in her pink Lexus. 'Great, she isn't going to believe a word I say. But I guess at some point, she is going to find out.'

Lacus pulled up to the corner. She could see Kira leaning against the tree. It was as if he could barely stand up himself, and then she noticed the four gashes in his face. They weren't too deep, but it was odd that there were two sets of two parallel cuts. She wondered what could have caused those weird marks. And why did he look so pale and weak?

"Here, let me help you to the car Kira."

"No...I'll be fine. I don't want Lacus to see how weak I am. She can already see something is wrong, but she doesn't need to know how much." Kira said as he used all his strength to limp over to the car."

Cagalli nodded sadly and headed over to the car and got into the back seat.

When he got to the door, he opened it and stumbled in, nearly falling on top of Lacus. Lacus threw her arms out to try and stabilize him. Her left hand caught the front of Kira's right shoulder, but her right hand caught Kira left side, right on one of his cuts and a broken rib. Kira hid his face from Lacus and gritted his teeth in pain, stopping himself from screaming aloud. Cagalli watched this from the back seat and cringed, thinking how badly that must have hurt for Kira.

"Oh my, Kira are you alright?"

"Yeah...I-I must ha-have tripped on something." Kira ground out through the pain.

"Are you sure, you looked like you were having trouble walking" Lacus said as she began driving towards the school.

Kira started to hunch over to escape the pain from resting his back on the backrest of the car seat, and responded, "Um...yeah, I was playing baseball with my da-dad, and I-I hurt my leg...when I dove for a ball..."

"Is that how you got the cuts on your face too?"

"Um...ye-yeah, I hit a stick when I dove. It was some really bad luck I guess."

Lacus gave Kira a skeptical look. She was not buying any of this, but there was nothing she could do. Kira didn't trust her enough yet to tell her what really happened, so for now she would have to believe it.

Cagalli noticed the look; she was going to have to talk to Kira. She was on to him, but go figure. She was his only friend, and within one day she had made Kira accept that. She obviously connects with Kira very well.

"Oh Kira! Guess what?" Lacus exclaimed excitedly.

"What?" Kira had no idea what Lacus was so excited about.

"Well today, you get to meet my friend. He is also participating in the transfer program. His shuttle arrived late last night." and with that she began tell Kira all about her friend, which took most of the car ride. "Oh I just know you will love him Kira."

For some reason when Kira was listening to Lacus describe her friend, he kept feeling a twinge of jealousy in his heart. He knew that Lacus was important to him, and couldn't help but wonder if this guy was her boyfriend. Maybe that was why he was jealous he thought. But it is better if she is with a guy that can give her what she deserves, not some broken and beaten boy who needs to be put back together.

They all got out of the car and grabbed the bags. Kira slung it over his right shoulder, the side of his body with the least wounds, trying his best to carry on like normal. Yet it was just too much with all the strain on his weak body. The broken ribs, bruised abdomen, split lip, dozens of cuts, Kira was having a lot of trouble to say the least.

Lacus noticed that some sweat was dripping down Kira's face, and he had some shallow breathing. She couldn't understand what had happened. He was perfectly fine the day before, and now he looked to be on the verge of death. He was in way too much pain for sliding on a "stick."

Kira looked over at Lacus. "Hey, Lacus. Thanks for the ride. I-I really owe you one. Anyways, I am... I am going to walk Cagalli to class. I will see you in Ms. Ramius's cl-class ok?"

"Oh yeah. See you then." She responded absently. Lacus was deep in thought, but with Kira walking his sister to class, she could use this chance to find Athrun. She quickly pulled out her cell phone and dialed his number.

"Yes Lacus?"

"Oh hello Athrun. I was wondering if you were at school yet..."

"Um... yeah, I just walked in through the front doors... why do you ask?

"I need your advice. Hold on, let me come meet you okay?"

"All right."

"See you in a minute Athrun." And they both hung up their phones.

Lacus quickly ran to the front doors of the school. As soon as she opened them, she saw Athrun standing there waiting. She ran up and gave him a quick hug. It made her feel better knowing he was here. She knew he could really help her out with Kira. After her talk with Athrun the previous night, she realized that she wanted more than just a friendship with Kira. She wanted to be everything to Kira. But first she needed to figure out what was going on with Kira.

"Athrun! It's so good to see you. Look I really need your help again."

"What happened this time."

"Okay, here is the deal..." and Lacus explained the whole situation from when she got the call from Cagalli to when she called Athrun. "...And I don't know what to do to make him trust me!" Lacus almost screamed in frustration. Lacus never lost her calm exterior, but this was driving her crazy, she wanted to help Kira so much. Every time she looked in his eyes, she could see that his exterior belied the sadness in his heart. She could see that he was trying to protect himself by hiding his true personality. And when she hugged him, she could almost feel all his pain, all of his suffering, and all of his sorrow. It tore at her heart to see Kira like that. She may have only known him for a couple of weeks, but she couldn't help it, she loved him. She felt a connection to him, it was as if she could never leave him even if she tried.

"Okay first you need to relax. I know you have had some simple conversation with him, and that has not turned up any answers. It has gotten you closer to him, but given you no answers. Maybe you need to look into other sources. He has no other friends, but what about teachers? And didn't you say he had a sister? Maybe they can tell you something, especially his sister."

""Yes, it is just that I want to help Kira so badly and I don't know how. I do believe many of the teachers have a soft spot for Kira, so I will try talking to them." Lacus paused for a second to think about Athrun's words. "As for Kira's sister, I think she will be loyal to Kira and probably will not say a word. So far she has not divulged any thing Kira would not say. I will still try though. Thank you for all your help Athrun." Lacus finished with a sweet smile.

"Lacus, I am always here for you. Anyways, I look forward to meeting this Kira kid."

"Yeah. I'm sure you two will get along great. Which reminds me...do you have your schedule?"

"Um...yeah, I just got it from Principal Durandal. He handed it to me as he was leaving. He said he wouldn't be back for a while, and then he said something really weird."

"You mean Principal Durandal took a leave of absence. Maybe he is taking a nice vacation with his family... Anyways, what did he say that was so weird."

"He said this, 'Remember this: Names do not always express the true characteristics of the person who holds it, for each name is not always theirs."

"That is really weird...wait, do you think that has anything to do with Kira?"

"I doubt it. I think the guy was just joking around."

"Oh, well if you say so. You were the one that heard him say it, maybe some emphasis was lost in translation."

"Yeah, I could have sworn there was a hint of sarcasm in his voice Lacus."

"Well anyways, please let me see you schedule."

Athrun handed over his schedule, and Lacus looked it over.

"Oh Athrun this is great, you have all the same classes as Kira and I except for two. You have a free period when we have math, and you have your advanced math class when we have sewing."

'Oh, well this should be fun then.' "I'm glad I will get to meet Kira right away then." And with that, the two of them headed towards social studies with Ms. Ramius.

While Lacus was talking with Athrun, Kira "walked" Cagalli to her class. Kira was still too weak to walk far by himself, so he had to rely on Cagalli's help.

"Kira, you're not going to be able to walk to your class from my room. Let me just walk you to your class, that way I will know you have made it safely."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. Alright, to my classroom then."

"Yeah. You know you are going to have to tell Lacus soon. Especially cause I don't think you will be able to walk to the rest of your classes...so you are probably going to need her help."

"No! Look Cagalli, I will be fine. She doesn't need to know what happened because... because I don't want her to worry okay. The less she knows...the better it is for her."

"Kira you know you have let some people in to your life, and it looks like Lacus really cares about you. I would suggest telling your _friend_ you're problem."

"But... but... I don't w-want to see her getting her hurt" Kira mumbled as he was becoming short of breath from all the walking.

"I know Kira. But you can't always stop that. And you never know, knowing more about you might actually protect her."

"I just can't tell her Cagalli... I jus-just can't do it." He didn't want to burden Lacus. She didn't need to know his problems because he was right, it would be dangerous for her.

"Kira..." 'Kira, why are you so stubborn?' Cagalli thought.

They arrived at Kira's classroom door. The two stopped right outside the doorframe so people wouldn't see Cagalli supporting her brother. She let go, and turned to Kira. "Remember Kira, Lacus is your friend. She cares about you and wants to help you. I know she is sincere and she wouldn't do anything to endanger you or her."

"I know..." Kira said disbelievingly. "Well, I will see you at lunch Cagalli." And with that he started heading into the classroom, using whatever he could get his hands on for support. He was always looking for something to lean on because his body was so tired and sore that he couldn't hold his weight up. It was especially tough since he couldn't take deep breaths with his broken ribs constricting his diaphragm.

Kira walked in the room and used the desks for support. He arrived early enough that most of the students weren't there, however he did notice Lacus in by her seat talking to a boy with dark violet hair and sharp green eyes. Kira sat down in his desk and turned to Lacus. Kira wasn't exactly sure what to do, but he figured he should at least say hi since he was there. "Hey Lacus-" Kira was cut off by Lacus and spared of trying to figure out what else to say.

"Oh my! Kira I didn't see you there. When did you get here?"

"Um... just a sec-second ago. I didn't have much else to do after walking Cagalli to class."

Lacus wondered at his statement. How was he able to walk Cagalli to her class and make it all the way here when he could barely walk the couple of feet from the tree to her car? She turned to look over at the doorway, and she could have sworn she saw Cagalli walking away from the room. "Well I look forward to seeing Cagalli at lunch today." Then she realized something. "Oh my gosh, where are my manners? Kira, this is my friend Athrun who I was telling you about."

Athrun stood up and walked over to Kira. Athrun reached out his hand and said, "Hello Kira, I'm Athrun, Athrun Zala. Lacus talks very highly of you. I'm honored to be able to meet you."

Kira felt something unknown to him in his heart from Athrun's comment. 'Lacus talks about me?' Kira thought. Kira started blushing and quickly looked down. "It's nice to meet you too."

Then Athrun noticed it. The cut on Kira's face. It intrigued Athrun. What could have caused such a perfectly parallel gashes? They didn't look natural, but he couldn't think of anything that could have caused it. "So Kira, those are some interesting cuts. How did you get them?" Lacus got a little nervous at that question. She wasn't sure how Kira was going to respond, and she hoped he wouldn't reject Athrun as a friend for it.

"I was playing baseball with my...d-dad, and I slid for the ball and scraped my face on a stray stick that was lying on the ground. You know how it goes..."

"Oh yeah. I hate it when that happens. You slide, and then you realized too late that you are going to hit something. It's the worst." Yeah, except there is no way that a stick could give him those cuts. Though as odd as the cuts are, I am sure the explanation is even weirder...

"Um...yeah." Well even if he didn't believe it, at least he is leaving the topic alone. Lacus was releasing a sigh of relief. She could see the relief that passed over Kira's face when Athrun responded. Athrun had played it right, knowing exactly what to say. She still wished that Kira would open up though. But there wasn't much Lacus could do. She tried everything, she talked with him to try and open him up, she gave him her cell phone number so he could call her if he had problems, and she even hugged him to give him comfort. Nothing seemed to help, but she wasn't going to give up. Lacus noticed that Ms. Ramius had walked into the classroom. She remembered Athrun's advice and decided that she would try talking to Ms. Ramius any other teacher she could find.

Ms. Ramius had heard from Mu and Andrew about the newfound friendship between Lacus and Kira. She was so happy for Kira, and hoped that the friendship blossomed. She had also heard about Kira's sister. She found it weird that Kira never talked about her, but then again Kira seemed to only talk about schoolwork and that was really only to his teachers. Kira never associated with anyone else as if he were afraid that letting people in was dangerous. So what made him accept Lacus? Did she not take no for an answer? Or is there more... does he like her? Right now she had to teach class, and unfortunately for the students it was a full lecture period.

Ms. Ramius lectured the class over the history of the EAF, and put almost all the students. She even noticed that Kira was starting to close his eyes from the lecture. She started to wonder if she was really that boring. Kira never fell asleep during her lectures. He never showed any hint of boredom on her classes before, so maybe her lectures had finally reached a new low. The only two people who seemed to be paying attention were Lacus and Athrun, Athrun more so than Lacus because Lacus seemed to be constantly glancing at Kira. Well, at least he has a loyal friend she thought. Maybe it was because they were the new students and hadn't had to suffer through as many lectures as the rest of the kids.

Lacus noticed that Kira was struggling to keep his eyes open through the class. She was hoping he was just tired and he was using the lecture to catch up on sleep, but something in her mind kept yelling at her. It was like she could almost feel it was something.

Kira knew he was in trouble. He was having so much trouble breathing he couldn't focus on anything but keeping consciousness. But it was getting increasingly difficult from all the pain in his body. He was trying to listen to Ms. Ramius's lecture, he actually was finding it quite interesting, but by halfway through the class he wasn't even listening to a word she said because he was so focused on trying to stay awake. Near the end of the class he had actually passed out for a second and his head lightly fell on the desk, so nobody noticed. However, he regained consciousness and jerked upwards. He felt his back scream in pain and had to bite his tongue to stop himself from screaming. Tears were in his eyes from the pain that was running up his back, and he prayed that nobody noticed.

Lacus, who had been watching him like a hawk, noticed his sudden movement when he regained consciousness. She also saw the tears in his eyes. Now she was really worried because she knew there had to be something seriously wrong for Kira to be in this much pain. Lacus turned over to get Athrun's attention, and noticed that he was watching Kira as well with sharp analyzing eyes. He looked up a little to see Lacus staring at him. He gave her a sad look, trying to communicate his sympathy and worry to her. They both knew something was wrong with Kira, and they just had to keep a close eye on Kira. Before either of them could think anymore about the subject, the bell rang, signaling the end of class.

Kira jumped a little at the bell, and once again his back was screaming in pain. He couldn't take much more of this, and he knew it. He was beginning to wonder how he was going to make it through the day.

Cagalli was in her first period class. It was political science with Mr. Rau Le Creuset. Cagalli, like Kira, usually sat in the front of the class so she could get the best notes. On her left was Shinn, who was sleeping. On her right was Nicol. Behind her was Stellar, who spent more time watching Shinn then anything else in the class. Cagalli usually paid close attention, especially in Mr. Le Creuset's class because he would always ask kids who were sleeping or day dreaming hard questions about the topic he was lecturing on. Today, however, she couldn't focus. She was so worried about Kira. She was wondering how he was going to make it through the day. He could barely walk on his own; she didn't know how he would make it to the next class. The worry was eating at her heart and she couldn't focus on class.

Le Creuset, who was giving a lecture, noticed that Cagalli wasn't paying attention. She always paid attention and always got some of the highest marks in his class. She was one of his favorites, though in his teaching style, that did not amount to much of anything. He was known to be one of the toughest teachers, and got many bad reviews from students, as well as many calls from parents asking why he was "picking" on their child. Today, he was feeling nice though, so he decided to ask Cagalli a simple question. That way she could get the answer, and it would hopefully get her to pay attention to his wonderful lecture.

"Now, Miss Cagalli, would you be so kind as to tell me about the Bloody Valentine Incident on February 14th, Cosmic Era 70?"

Cagalli didn't even look up when he called her name. Her eyes went wide, and she could only think of Junius 7, her home plant. It had been destroyed the year after her parents were killed in the Blue Cosmos terrorist bombing. Cagalli couldn't remember much about the incident itself, but she did remember that it was that incident that had caused all the problems in her and Kira's life; it was the reason Kira was suffering so much. "It was the destruction of the PLANT, Junius 7," she said with deep sorrow in her voice. "It was due to an attack led by Blue Cosmos, when a nuclear missile was launched at the PLANT."

"Why thank you Miss Cagalli..."

The sadness in her voice had not gone unnoticed by Rau. 'Oh my, well it seems that I have found a troubling topic for the young Cagalli Djibril. It was odd to hear her anger when she mentioned Blue Cosmos, though. Her father is the vice president of the terrorist group, and the leader of LOGOS. How interesting. I will have to delve more into this subject of interest.' And with that thought, Rau decided to leave Cagalli alone after touching on what seemed to be a very sensitive subject.

Cagalli sank back into her worried state after the question. She was so worried about her brother that even the pain of losing her parents wasn't having much effect on her. Cagalli's friends also noticed this behavior and were a little worried about their friend. She was usually very attentive, happy, and cheerful. Sure she had a fiery attitude, but this wasn't it. She looked positively depressed.

Soon the bell rang and Cagalli's friend came up to ask what was wrong.

"Hey Cagalli, you seem so sad. What's wrong? Do you want to talk about it?" Nicol asked.

"Yeah, you weren't even paying attention in class." Shinn added.

"Shinn's right, you always pay attention. You can tell us, we are your friends." Stellar added.

"Um..." Cagalli paused. "It's nothing. I am just worried about something. But hey, lets get to class or else we will be late."

"Alright, but its all open ears over here if you need to talk Cagalli." Nicol said before they all started to packing up their stuff and heading to class.

A/N: Please read and review. Any kind of review is accepted.


	8. Trust

Disclaimer: I obviously do not own Gundam SEED, Gundam SEED Destiny, or any of the characters related to the show.

Kira slowly got up from his desk and grabbed his backpack. He slung it over his right, but even that slight movement caused his back to hurt again. He was short of breath and having trouble seeing straight from the lack of air and all the pain. He put one hand on the desk and rested all his upper body weight on the desk for support.

Lacus noticed Kira struggling to get up. She started to really, though, when he tried walking. He stumbled his first step and nearly fell flat on his face. That was enough, she was going to help Kira even if he didn't want her too. She couldn't watch him like this. She quickly ran up, catching him by surprise, and put his arm around her shoulders, and grabbed him around the waist to support him.

"Kira, you need help. Let me at least help you walk to classes."

Kira just looked at her and nodded a little sadly. He was in too much pain to say anything. Lacus could tell he wasn't happy about it, but he couldn't do anything because he couldn't even walk out his classroom. And, as much as he wanted to, he could never complain about having Lacus's arms around him. He loved the feeling he got when she did put he arms around him, and he swore her touch took away some of his pain.

Athrun watched from behind, as Kira seemed to relax a little in Lacus's grip. He decided to let them be. He had a free period, so he figured he would walk behind the two to make sure that they made it to their class safely.

Lacus and Kira walked out of the room, with Athrun following behind. They were walking through an empty hall towards the art hall when they heard someone call out.

"Well... I see you and your new friend move fast Kira."

When Athrun saw this, he decided to hide behind a locker in the corner and survey the situation.

Kira just looked up with surprise. He couldn't believe it. He knew he should have taken care of Sai that day, maybe then he would have been too afraid to bother with Kira again. "Sai..." he ground out through the pain.

"It's nice to see you too. I came for some payback. You disgraced my friends and I the other week, and we decided it is time to seek revenge on you."

Kira couldn't believe. Of all the days! Of all the days, they had to pick this one. The day he couldn't do anything. If Lacus got hurt it would be his entire fault because he can't even walk as it stands, let alone protect her.

"Orga! Clotho! Get Kira. I think Shani would like to repay him for what he did the other week, seeing as he is still recovering."

Orga and Clotho quickly ran up to Kira and Lacus. Lacus didn't know what to do she held onto Kira tighter, but Orga and Clotho grabbed her arms and yanked them off Kira. They were too strong, and she couldn't do anything. She fell to the floor and watched as they grabbed Kira and positioned him for Shani. Orga and Clotho each grabbed an arm with one hand, and put the other hand on his back, pulling Kira's arms back and pushing his body forward. Each of their hands was on or by cuts that Kira had received the night before. Kira was in excruciating pain, and nobody had even thrown a punch yet.

Shani walked up to Kira, his arm in a sling since Kira had dislocated his shoulder the other week. Shani looked at him with anger in his eyes, or rather eye because one was covered by hair. Kira could see the desire for revenge. He closed his eyes in defeat waiting for whatever was to come next.

Shani gave Kira a fierce kick to his left side. Kira's eyes shot open, and his mouth opened wide. However, when it looked like Kira was about to scream, instead of sound coming out, Kira spewed blood. Kira's body went limp after that. The pain was too much for Kira. His body was so tired and he couldn't take any more.

Lacus cringed when she saw the blood, and her heart dropped when she saw him go limp. She was so scared for Kira. 'He will be okay. He just has to be! I need him...' Lacus desperately thought. She began crying when she thought that. Kira was too important to lose.

Cagalli was walking by the hall when she saw Kira. She saw him spitting up blood. She couldn't believe it. She ran down the hall, not caring that her friends following her, and started screaming. "Let him go!"

Shani was about to give another kick for good measure, but out of nowhere, he got punched right in the face. He could taste the iron from the blood that was running into his mouth. It was a strong punch, and it knocked Shani right to the ground. "I think it is time you guys take your leave."

Lacus, who had started crying after seeing Kira get kicked looked up when she heard the voice. "Athrun!"

Orga and Clotho dropped Kira and quickly charged Athrun. They both swung at his head, but Athrun ducked and right as they were about to run past him, punched both of them in the stomach. After the punch, the hunched over and backed away from Athrun. All three were retreating back towards Sai.

Lacus had moved to Kira's side, his head in her lap, crying. She was stroking his hair, and trying to see if he was breathing. She could tell his chest was moving up and down a little, but she was still worried for Kira. He was important to her, and this incident had made her realize how deep those feelings were. She knew now for certain that she loved Kira.

Cagalli was arriving at the scene, and her friends were following, wondering what was going on. She was still screaming, and tears threatened to fall down her face. She couldn't believe what she had seen.

Cagalli was about to charge Sai, but Athrun grabbed her before she got close. She struggled with all her might to get out of Athrun's grip while screaming at Sai, "How could you do this! You jerks! He was in so much pain. HE-HE COULDN'T EVEN WALK! You are nothing but cowards! He suffers so much... He suffers so much! He doesn't need you idiots beating up on him! You jerks are just lucky he is too nice to fight back..." And with that she broke down into tears.

Athrun walked her over to Kira, assuming that this was his sister. It was hard to tell because they hardly looked alike. He looked over at her friends and said, "Look after her and make sure she doesn't do anything stupid."

"Yeah... sure" Shinn replied, not knowing what else to say. None of them knew what was going on. They saw Cagalli scream and run down this hall, only to find her brother on the ground with the girl the saw yesterday crying with his head in her lap.

Athrun walked over to Sai and his group, who had been frozen in place since Cagalli screamed at them. He looked at them with hatred burning in his eyes. "Look, I don't know who you guys are and why you have been hurting this innocent kid. Nor do I know how you have gotten away with it for so long. But listen now and listen well, I have every intention of alerting the proper authorities of your actions. You guys are scum, and that girl is right. You took advantage of an injured kid for fun. Now make yourselves scarce. Got it?"

Sai didn't like this kid's attitude, that guy did not realize who he was talking to Sai thought. "Now look here-" Sai was interrupted when Athrun's fist connected with his face.

"Go!" Athrun yelled at them. And after that, Orga and Clotho picked up their leader and all four of them left.

Athrun turned back to Kira, Lacus, and Cagalli. Lacus still had Kira's head in his lap, trying to hold him close, stroking his hair, and crying. Cagalli was kneeling at Kira's side. Her head was tucked in between her legs. She was sobbing and her body was trembling. Cagalli's friends were all standing against lockers, scared and unsure of what to do. They wanted to help, but they didn't know what to do. Then Athrun noticed the puddle of blood on Kira's left side. His shirt was soaking from where Shani had kicked him. He quickly ran over to Kira.

"Lacus, I need you to let go of Kira. We need to get him to the nurse's office. Let me carry him." Athrun said.

"No!" Lacus nearly yelled, bringing Kira's head closer to her body, as if trying to protect him. She was so blinded by her emotions she didn't realize what was going. She was just trying to protect Kira.

"Lacus! Let go of Kira!" he barked.

Athrun's harsh command had knocked some sense into Lacus. She quickly let go of Kira, and Athrun picked him up. He cradled Kira in his arms. He looked over at the blond hair girl. "Can you show me where the nurse's office is?"

Cagalli looked up, tears dripping down her face, and she nodded. She got up shakily but quickly gained balance. "Follow me." And with that she started haphazardly running towards the nurse's office with Athrun, Lacus, and her friends not far behind.

They all burst through the doors into the nurse's office. Immediately Ms. Talia Gladys, the school nurse, rushed out to see what the commotion was. She was obviously not pleased with what she found. She looked at the violet haired boy and said "Hurry, lay him on this bed!"

Athrun nodded and put Kira on the bed she pointed at. As soon as Athrun put Kira on the bed, Ms. Gladys pushed him out of the way and began cutting away his shirt. Since Kira was lying on his back, she noticed the bruising on his stomach and what looked to be about five broken ribs, and showing signs of serious bruising around them. She noticed that the blood was not coming from his stomach though, so she rolled him over on his side. This way his weight wouldn't be on his broken ribs. When she rolled him over she removed the rest of his shirt. Needless to say she was not pleased. What she found was dozens of gashes. Each injury was a set of two parallel gashes, exactly like the ones on his face.

Lacus's eyes widened in horror when she saw Kira's back. Those were inflicted wounds. Who could do that to Kira? How could they? Now she knew why Kira was in so much pain. She looked over at Cagalli and saw the tears flowing down her face, and then her tears began flowing freely down her own face. She couldn't stand seeing Kira like this. He was too nice to deserve this.

Ms. Gladys noticed that the cuts were healing surprisingly well, so she decided to just apply an antibiotic cream on his back entire back. That way the cream would prevent the cuts from scabbing and hurting so much when he moved, as well as prevent infection. Unfortunately Kira's others wounds would just need time to heal. There wasn't anything she could really do. However, she needed to figure out who had caused these wounds. She decided she would see if any of the kids that brought him here knew. She turned around to look at them, and asked, "Now, who wants to tell me what happened here."

"I will..." Athrun stated and began explaining the whole situation with Sai.

"I see, well we will deal with this Mr. Argyle. However, does anyone know what caused these marks?" Talia was horrified that those kids would do this. She was also amazed that this kid could even be walking around with his injuries, let alone take a kick to a broken rib. First priority, however, Talia needed to figure out the cause of the horrible gashes. She noticed that everyone was shaking their heads... except the blond haired girl. She walked up to her, and noticed the tears rolling down her face. "Do you want to tell me what happened to this boy?"

'Yes... yes I do...' Cagalli thought. But she remembered something Kira told her a long time ago.

_Flashback_

"_Kira why can't we tell on Djibril?"_

"_There is nobody we could tell that would help us."  
_

"_But what about the police? They could arrest him, couldn't they?"_

"_Djibril is very powerful, it is better for us to wait until we can move out. If the cops arrested him, he would just pay his way out of jail and that would make things even worse for us."_

"_But..."_

"_Cagalli, never tell anybody about what Djibril does to me... about what he does to us. Got it?"_

"_Yes Kira."_

_End Flashback_

"No, so-sorry Ms. Gladys..." and with that Cagalli lowered her head and just cried harder. "is-is my brother...is my brother going to be al-alright?"

Talia was a little surprised. This was the boy's sister and she didn't know what happened to him. She was going to have to question him when he woke up unfortunately. She looked at the poor girl and said, "Yeah, he will be fine. He has some broken ribs, some nasty bruises, and all those cuts. But it isn't anything time can't heal."

Lacus and Cagalli visibly relaxed when they heard this. At least Kira would be ok. Cagalli just hoped Djibril wasn't angry tonight because Kira could not handle another beating. 'Why does this have to happen to him? Why? He doesn't deserve it. He is so kind and caring...' Cagalli thought.

"And who may I ask is this boy?" Talia asked as she started pulling out paper work to fill out.

"His name is Kira Hi-Djibril." Cagalli had almost slipped their real name. That never happens she thought. It must have been because she was so emotionally unstable right then she thought.

"Thank you." This was the kid that Murrue, Mu, Erica, and Andrew always talked about. They always said he was the nicest student they had. He was shy, but very kind. So how could he end up like this? Talia had no idea what was happening to Kira, and she felt like that this was bigger than she thought. "Alright, now who here is family?" She had a feeling about who the three that were going to stay would be. She also knew that even if they weren't family, it didn't look like they were going to leave under any circumstance.

Cagalli raised her hand first, and Lacus and Athrun quickly raised their hand. They may not have been real family, but they were his friends and weren't going to leave Kira's side. Cagalli's friends who had been standing in the back just watching didn't react to the question. They knew they couldn't do anything, so they stayed back at that point.

"Alright, well you three can stay here." She said to Lacus, Athrun, and Cagalli. "You three need to get back to class. Here, let me give you a note."

"Thank you." Nicol, Shinn, and Stellar responded.

"Alright, now I am going to have to contact Kira's parents. Cagalli, what is your father's number." Ms. Gladys asked.

Cagalli bristled when she heard the word "father." Yeah some father he is! He should be tortured and killed for everything he has done to Kira. "I-I don't know ma'am. We do-don't have his work nu-number."

Talia found that rather odd, but no matter. "All right, well then, if you will excuse me, I must go talk to the principal about this matter. Please stay here to watch and see if Kira wakes up."

They all nodded in understanding, and with that Ms. Gladys left the room and headed to the principal's office.

As soon as Gladys left the room, Cagalli fell to her knees and broke down crying. Athrun looked on with sadness in his eyes. He could tell this was hard on her. Lacus who was still crying looked over to see Cagalli sobbing. She slowly walked over and sat down next to Cagalli, pulling her in a hug. Cagalli put her head on Lacus's shoulder and cried harder.

"Shhh...Kira will be ok. It's all going to be fine."

"He-He is... he's so st-stupid! He al-always does this..." Athrun's quickly looked over when he heard that comment. "He always does this." This isn't the first time something like this has happened?

"Cagalli..." Lacus said, trying her best to comfort the poor girl.

"He always gets hurt. A-and it's all...its all be-because of me! He is too n-nice for this. I-I mean last night he-he couldn't even mo-move."

"Cagalli...how did this happen?" Athrun whispered.

"It was that Go-God forsaken man! He uses Kira as-as a...he uses him as a damn stress toy!" But then she realized she had said too much, and quickly jumped out of Lacus's embrace and began backing into the corner with a scared look in her eyes. "I-I-I...I have said too much..."

Lacus and Athrun both understood that the "God forsaken man" was their father. They knew Cagalli was getting very scared about what she said.

"Cagalli, we won't tell anybody if you don't want us too." Lacus said with concern and sympathy laced in her voice.

"You can't! No matter what, you ca-can't tell anybody what you heard from me." Cagalli was starting to freak out. If they told people, then sure Djibril would get arrested, but he would probably get right out. Cagalli couldn't even imagine what would happen Kira. He might not be able to make it out of that one.

Athrun and Lacus looked at each other, and nodded to each other. Lacus spoke up in a calm and caring singsong voice. "Don't worry, we won't tell anyone. Besides we all have secrets. Take me for example. The real reason I joined the exchange program is to escape the PLANTs for a little bit."

"Thank you." Cagalli mumbled, still embarrassed that she had said so much. "Wh-why were you trying to es-escape the PLANTs?"

"Well, at the PLANTs, I was very popular... for my music. Luckily, the PLANTs music doesn't really reach down here, and most people don't recognize me. Anyways, up in the PLANTs, I had very little privacy, and I wanted to get away from it all. I had been meaning to tell Kira, but... I haven't really had a chance."

"...perhaps you could sing me a song then... I think a relaxing one would re-really nice right about now."

"KIRA!" Cagalli and Lacus yelled at the same time. Both girls quickly ran over to Kira's bedside so they could be closer to him.

"Kira, you're awake. I was so worried about you. I was walking by, and i look over and saw you being held by those guys from before. And then when I got there you were on the ground bleeding. I-I... I thought I lost you. I was so afraid Kira..." Cagalli sobbed.

"Cagalli...I'm okay. Don't worry ab-about me. I told you that." Kira said trying to play off the magnitude of the situation. Cagalli cried harder in response to that statement. "Lacus did anything...happen to you? A-Are you okay?"

"Oh Kira, I am just fine. Af-After you passed out...well, Athrun dealt with them. He stopped that Shani guy from kicking you again, and got rid of the gang. He then took you here." Lacus said.

Everybody had stopped crying since Kira had woken up and was talking to them.

Kira couldn't help but feel a slight stab at his pride, and he wasn't sure why. Athrun noticed the look of jealousy in Kira's eyes. He had to laugh at himself. Kira was getting jealous of him, thinking that Lacus like him more. If only Kira could see how much Lacus cared for him. Lacus barely talked to guys on her own, so for her to be talking to Kira so much was a pretty big deal.

Lacus wanted to tell Kira how scared she was. How much she cared for him. This incident had really brought those feelings out. She realized that even though she had only known Kira for two days, he had filled the empty feeling inside of her. She wanted to tell him all of this, but she was afraid to, and with Kira's sister in the room, she couldn't find the courage. She could get up on a stage in front of a million people and sing, but she didn't have enough courage to tell one person that she cared for him more than anything in the world.

Athrun, who had known Lacus for so many years, noticed that Lacus looked like she wanted to say something, but she kept glancing at Cagalli. Athrun had a feeling she was afraid to say anything in front of her. Then he had an idea. "Hey, Cagalli, I'm really thirsty, do you think you could show me where the nearest water fountain is?"

"Well...uh..." Cagalli stuttered.

"It will only take a minute, and I am sure Lacus can watch Kira for a couple of minutes. Right Lacus?"

"Um...yeah...don't worry." Lacus said, wondering what was going through Athrun's mind.

"Please Cagalli." Athrun asked.

Cagalli looked over at Kira. He looked back at her and said, "Go ahead Cagalli... I will be fine."

"Oh alright. Follow me." Cagalli huffed. She was not very happy about having to leave her brother.

Athrun smiled. He looked over at Lacus and gave her a wink. Lacus's eyes went wide. Was he taking her out of here so she could talk to Kira alone she wondered?

'Luckily the nearest water fountain is just at the end of this hall.' Cagalli thought. She led Athrun to the end of the hall. "Here it is, a water fountain."

"Thanks." Athrun replied as he went to take a sip.

"Now I am sure you can find your way back to the nurse's office, so I will see you in there."

"Not so fast Cagalli." Athrun said as he grabbed Cagalli's arm.

"Hey! Let go of me." Athrun let go, and she asked, "What are you doing?"

"Look, I wasn't really thirsty. Lacus wanted to talk to Kira alone... so I this was my way of trying to get you and I out of the room."

"You... But... Kira and Lacus... talk... What are you talking about?"

"Lacus wanted to talk to Kira alone. We should let them have their little talk, so please wait."

"Fine." Cagalli said, conceding.

Athrun and Cagalli had just left the nurse's office, and now Lacus and Kira were sitting in silence. Kira's heart was racing. He knew that Lacus was special to him, but today he realized how important she was. Right when Shani kicked him Kira had a vision of Lacus pass through his mind. He realized right before he passed out that he loved her. She was his sanctuary. He hoped that she returned the feelings.

"Lac-" "Kir-" They both cut each other off.

"You go first Lacus." Kira said, too nervous to say anything else.

"Okay." She nodded. "Kira do you believe in love at first sight."

Kira paused for a second before responding. "I guess I do."

Lacus looked down at the floor. "Well, I have always believed in it. Ever since I was little girl, I would read all the fairy tales. My favorite stories, though, were the ones when the prince and princess fell in love at first sight. I had always wanted that to happen to me, so I figured that when I saw the boy of my dreams, I would know it right away."

Lacus paused to look up into Kira's eyes. She felt like she could stare for hours into his deep amethyst eyes. She knew she had to tell Kira her feelings. "Today, I was so worried about you. I mean, you could barely walk when I picked you up this morning. All through social studies I was watching you struggle to stay awake. Then we ran into Sai's gang, and Shani kicks you. Forget the blood, when I saw you pass out, I was worried I had lost you. They were still holding you, so I couldn't check to see if you were okay. When they did drop you, all I could do was hold your head in my lap and cry. It was then that I realized." Lacus paused for a second and blushed. "I realized how important you are to me Kira. We may have only known each other for a couple of weeks. We may only talk about pointless things. We may not know each other's deepest secrets, but I love you Kira... I feel so safe when I am around you. You have filled the emptiness in my soul and in my heart. I know you may not return my feelings, but I needed you to know how important you are to me. I needed you know that I love you-" But Lacus was cut off.

"I love you too Lacus." Kira responded, blushing red and too afraid to look into Lacus's eyes. "When Shani kicked me today, the last thing that flashed in my mind was an image of you." Kira looked back up into Lacus's eyes. "I knew then how stupid I have been. I thought I was protecting you by not telling you about my life. I thought you would be safer. But I was wrong. I'm not helping anybody by keeping all these secrets; all I am doing is pushing away the people that I love. I know I can trust you, Lacus, I am just so scared. I know what I need to do. I know I need to tell you about this secret life I live, but the fear of losing everything, the fear of losing you, the fear of hurting you, all of that is still there. I am just sorry it took so long for me to realize this Lacus." Kira looked away from Lacus as a small tear slid down Kira's face.

Lacus placed one hand under Kira's chin and lifted his face up until his eyes met hers. Lacus used her other hand and wiped Kira's tear away from his face. She looked at him lovingly and said, "I know it is scary Kira, but I love you. Nothing will make me leave you. I know how kind and caring you are, and nothing will scare me away. Kira, you do not have to tell me everything right now. Take your time, but know that I will always be here for you."

Kira could see all the love in her eyes. He was so grateful to have someone like her love some like him. She was his sanctuary. She was who he had been looking for all this time, and now she finally knows how he much he cares for her. She finally knows that he loves her. "Thank you Lacus." Kira whispered.

"Your welcome Kira." Lacus said as she reached her hand out to stroke his hair. Kira closed his eyes at melted at Lacus's touch. He felt himself relaxing more and more each time Lacus's hand passed through his hair. He felt as if his pain was slowly being sifted away from her gentle touch. His eyes started to get heavy as all of the strain from the past couple of days had started to catch up to him. He looked over at Lacus with tired eyes. "Lacus-"

"Shhh. Just rest now Kira." Lacus said.

"Don't leave me."

"I will be right here, don't worry Kira. Now get some rest." Lacus said as she leaned over and kissed his forehead as Kira fell into a deep sleep. Lacus felt like she could watch Kira forever. He looked so calm and carefree in his sleep. His face was so cute to her as he slept peacefully, free from all the pain in his life. How she wished for him to look like that all the time, free from all of his pain.

Lacus stopped running her hands through Kira's hair. She realized she should probably let Athrun and Cagalli know that she was done talking to Kira and they could come back in if they wanted. She really didn't even want to leave Kira's side for a second, but she would only be gone for a second.

Lacus opened the door and found Cagalli and Athrun standing outside the door talking amongst each other and getting to know each other. It seemed to Lacus that a close friendship being forged between the two of them.

Kira and Lacus had been talking for quite a while and Cagalli was starting to get anxious. She really wanted to see her brother and make sure he was okay. She knew that physically he would be okay because he was always fine physically, but mentally Kira had a lot on his plate and she wanted to make sure he didn't have too much.

Cagalli decided she had waited long enough and walked over the Nurse's Office door. Right as she was reaching for the door knob to open, a hand reached over and stopped her. She turned quickly and looked angrily at Athrun. "Let me go in! I want to see my brother. I need to make sure he is okay." She said.

"Look. Lacus will come out when the two of them are done talking, and right now I doubt either of them want to be disturbed. This could be a very important talk for both of them, or at least I hope it is." Athrun said calmly, trying to diffuse Cagalli's anger.

"Alright." Cagalli gave in once again. "What do you think they are talking about?" Cagalli said tyring to deduce what could be taking them this long.

"All I know is that Lacus cares deeply for Kira. However, since I hardly know Kira, I can't say anything else."

"Well, Kira is head over heels for Lacus." Cagalli said. "He would never admit, but he is. The only other person he talks to is me, and I see him giving her a similar smile to the one he gives me whenever he wants me to know that he is there for me. So I would say that the feelings are mutual. I just hope the Lacus can find a way to make him admit that. That is the real trick with Kira." Cagalli finished.

"Well, Lacus has a way of getting into people's hearts, so hopefully she will find a way." Athrun said.

"Yeah."

"Well from the little that I know about him, he seems very nice. He looks like he could be the perfect person for Lacus."

"He is the nicest, most caring, selfless person I have ever met." Cagalli said with a hint of sadness in her voice.

"I see-" Athrun started, but he heard the Nurse's door open up and stopped. He looked over and saw Lacus peeking out the door.

"Oh why hello you two." Lacus said quietly. "Kira has fallen back asleep, and you two can come back in if you want."

Cagalli and Athrun nodded their heads and headed back into the Nurse's Office with Lacus. They noticed that Lacus quickly ran back to Kira, sitting in a chair that she moved up next to his bed. Cagalli saw Kira sleeping and noticed that not only did he have a peaceful expression on his face, but also he was smiling. Never had she ever seen him smile in his sleep. She hoped that this meant that Kira had at least started to trust in Lacus.

Athrun could tell that Lacus seemed to be much happier and was focusing most of her attention on Kira. He assumed that their talk must have gone well and that not only did Lacus get to say what she wanted to, but Kira had said what she was hoping to hear. He was very happy for Lacus. He wanted her to be happy.

Cagalli, on the other hand, was getting anxious. She decided she couldn't wait for Kira to wake up and turned to Lacus. "So what took you guys so long?" Cagalli asked, her fiery attitude back now that she knew Kira was going to be ok.

Lacus immediately blushed and responded, "Oh, the usual. I just wanted to make sure he was okay."

"And…" Cagalli added for her.

Lacus just succumbed to Cagalli's interrogation. She looked down, blushing crimson red, and whispered, "I told him I love him."

"No way!" Cagalli exclaimed loudly. "And what did he say?" Cagalli was dying to know if Kira finally realized how stupid he was being.

"I told her that I loved her as well." Kira said in an annoyed voice. "Now if you could be quiet Cagalli, I am trying to get some rest." However, Kira finished with a smile to let Cagalli know that he wasn't actually mad.

"You… and Lacus? But… you said…" Cagalli stuttered at a complete loss of words. "You're not as stupid as I thought!" She proudly exclaimed in the end.

"Hey! What is that supposed to mean? Who is the one that skipped a grade again? Huh?"

"Yeah, you may be book smart Kira, but you are a blind fool when it comes to your social life." Cagalli said. "How many years did it take for you to find a friend?"

"Look, I was just doing what was best for us in that matter. Okay?"

"Kira, you deserve a life too you know. You deserve happiness." Cagalli said with a frown.

"Maybe." Kira said seriously.

Lacus and Athrun listened to this exchange curiously. At first it was a sibling teasing session where they were each trying to poke a little fun at each other. However, as it went on, an unspoken but serious subject matter seemed to be making its way into the conversation. Lacus did not know what to make of it and decided it would be the first thing that she would ask about. Hopefully, it wouldn't strain their friendship but rather help it grow stronger.

Athrun was just as confused as Lacus. He could tell that Kira had some trouble with his self-esteem, or perhaps it was deeper than that. He just hoped that Lacus would be able to help and figure out what was going on.

After Kira and Cagalli's debate they all sat in silence, none of them knowing what to say. After a couple of minutes, Ms. Gladys returned.

Talia was surprised to see that Kira was awake. It was hard for her to imagine how he could have woken up so quickly. He had to have been in a very considerable amount of pain, and it was hard to imagine that he could be so lucid given his wounds. Talia didn't have a good explanation for how he could be recovering so quickly. She figured she was better off trying to treat him for his wounds, rather than wondering about the inexplicable. However, she realized that he was healing faster than some of the most genetically advanced coordinators even. She also noticed that there were no infected cuts, which seem to be pointing at him being a coordinator, which didn't make sense since he was Lord Djibril's son. There was something peculiar about the situation and Talia had no good rationalization. She decided she would talk to Murrue and them about this incident.

"Alright Kira, since you are awake, I would like to take a quick look at you before I release you from here." Talia said.

Kira nodded.

"Alright, now please sit up."

Kira did as he was told, and Talia began inspecting his wounds. She could see that the wounds were uninfected; healing nicely, and seemed to have gotten better within the short time she had left the office. The only thing she really worried about were all his broken ribs, but there wasn't much she could do about it. "Everything seems to be healing nicely Kira. The cuts on your back should heal up pretty quickly, especially if you put this ointment on." She said handing Kira a rather large tub of cream, deciding Kira could use it in case something like this ever happened again. "The only thing you need to do is make sure that you take it easy for the next couple of weeks to let those broken ribs of yours heal. Other wise you are free to go."

"Thank you Ms. Gladys." Kira said politely.

"Of course Kira." Talia said, now understanding why so many teachers had a soft spot for Kira. He was so polite, caring, and innocent. She couldn't understand why he had so few friends. However, she noticed that things seemed to be changing for him. She quickly broke from her thoughts and said sternly, "Alright. Now all of you back to class. You have had enough of a break, and I hope someone can help Kira." She would have liked to send Kira home, but without a parent to pick him up, he would have to attend classes for the day since he was "well enough" to continue for the day.

"I will help him Ms. Gladys, do not worry." Lacus quickly said.

"Well, I'm glad to hear it." Talia said.

Lacus nodded kindly at Talia, and then walked over to Kira, who was sitting on the bed. She bent down close to Kira, "Here, let me help you."

"Thanks." Kira replied as he placed his arm on Lacus's shoulder for support. He may be well enough to attend classes according to school standards, but he was still too weak to walk all the way to class on his own.

Lacus couldn't believe how easily Kira was accepting her help, but she wasn't about to complain. She needed to make sure that Kira didn't get worse, he obviously needed his strength for whatever problems he had to deal with at home. "It looks like it is time for English, and Mr. Waltfeld said today we are having an important discussion on the book. We better get going."

"Right."

"Athrun, are you coming with us? We would enjoy the company." Lacus asked.

"Yeah." He responded, and turned to Cagalli, "It was nice meeting you. I'm sure we will be seeing more of each other." With that he flashed her a smile before heading over to Kira and Lacus.

"Yeah…it was nice meeting you too." Cagalli said. "Be careful, ok Kira? And make sure you listen to everything Lacus says!"

"Don't worry Cagalli, I will." He said as they walked out of the nurse's office.

"Well, I'm headed this way, so I will just see you after school Kira." Cagalli said as she pointed the opposite direction Kira and the group was headed.

Kira nodded his head, and Cagalli headed off to class.

"Kira, we should get moving if we do not want to be late for English." Lacus said.

Kira nodded his head in response and started slowly moving his feet. Focusing on one foot after another so as not to trip over Lacus. The day continued on with Kira relying on Lacus for support.

A/N: This is all I have so far. I hope everyone has enjoyed the story, but do not worry because it is not anywhere near finished. Please Read and Review of course. Any kind of review is accepted.


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